
C!ass_Qj3 &£, 



EASY STAR LESSONS 



PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. 



WORKS BY R A. PROCTOR. 

A NEW STAR ATLAS. For the Library, School, and Ob- 
servatory. In 12 circular maps, with two index plates and with 
letter-press introduction in the study of the stars. Illustrated 
by wood-cuts. Third edition, Octavo cloth . $2 50 

LARGER STAR ATLAS. Showing 6,000 stars, and 1,5000b. 
jects of interest, in 12 circular maps on the equidistant pro- 
jection, with two - TK)lored index plate^, including all the stars 
to the fifth magnitude and the constellation figures, with a let- 
ter-press introduction. Folio, cloth extra . $7 00 

HALF HOURS WITH THE STARS. A plain and easy 
guide to the knowledge of the constellations, showing in 19 
maps the position of the principal star-groups night after 
night throughout the year, with introduction and a separate 
explanation of each map. True foi every year. 410, $2 50 
'• Nothing; so well calculated to ^ive rapid ami thorough knowledge of 

th«- position of the stars in the firmament lias ever before been designed or 
published.'*-— Weekly J inns. 

HALF HOURS WITH THE TELESCOPE. Being a 

popular guide to the vise of the telescope as a means of 
amusement and instruction. Adapted to inexpensive instru- 
ments. With illustrations on stone and wood. 12 cloth, $1 25 

" It is crammed with starry platen on wood and stone, and among the 
celestial phenomena described or figured, by far the larger number may be 
profitably examined with small telescopes."— Illustrated Timet. 

EASY STAR LESSONS. With 4 s star maps and 35 o.her 

dlustrations. Cr. Octavo, cloth extra . . . $2 50 

" Mr. Proctor, cf all writers of our time, best conforms to Matthew 
Arnold's conception of a man of culture, in that he strives to humanize 
knowledge, to divest it of whatever is harsh, crude, or technical, and so make 
it a source of happiness and brightness for all."— Westminister Review. 



EASY STAR LESSONS 



BY 

RICHARD A. PROCTOR 

author of 

Half-Hours with the Stars,' 1 '' Half-Hours with the Telescope, 

" A Larger Star Atlas-- " " The New Star Atlas, 11 etc. 




NEW YORK 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

27 and 29 West 23D Street 

1882 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction • • • . 9 

The Stars for January .....•••••• 23 

„ February • ••••••••• 43 

ft March. .••••• 63 

„ April •• 85 

„ May 105 

„ June • ••.... 123 

n July 141 

n August ...•••••••• 155 

„ September 171 

n October 189 

n November .••••••••• 211 



*> 



December 227 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Fig. i Horizons n 

„ 2 12 

„ 3 Star Clock 18 

„ 4 Guardians of the Pole ....... 19 

„ 5 Old Figure of Dragon 24 

„ 6 and 7 Modern Figures 25 

„ 8 Andromeda 30 

„ 9 Pegasus 31 

„ 10 Orion 45 

„ 11 Cetus 51 

„ 12 Taurus , 52 

„ 13 Ursa Minor 63 

., 14 Argo, Can is. Columba 67 

„ 15 Cepheus 72 

„ 16 Part of Cygnus 87 

„ 17 Leo 90 

„ 18 Ancient View of Ursa Minor 105 

„ 19 Cassiopeia 106 

„ 20 Her Chair 107 

„ 21 Virgo no 

„ 22 Perseus 126 

„ 23 Ophiuchus and Scorpio 142 

„ 24 Boo'ies and Corona 159 

„ 25 Aquarius, Capricornus, Pisces 171 

„ 26 Aquila 173 

„ 27 Dumb-Bell Nebula 176 

„ 28 Stars of Plough .... .... 192 

„ 29 Same 36,000 Years hence ....... 193 

., 30 Same ioc,ooc Years hence ....... 194 

„ 31 Same 100.000 Years ago . 194 

„ 32 Part of Aquarius 197 

» j j » 1? ••••»..... 190 

w 34 Cygnus, Lyra, Vulpecula 214 

„ 35 Auriga 229 



LIST OF STAR MAPS. 



January 



February 



March 



April 



May 



June 



z Northern 
| Southern 
] Eastern 
i Western 
I Northern 
J Southern 
j Eastern 
^Western 
/Northern 
] Southern 
I Eastern 
V Western 

(Northern 
Southern 
Eastern 
Western 
/Northern 
Southern 
F astern 
.W 7 estern 

(Northern 
Southern 
Eastern 
Western 



r>r,B 






IV\GE 


36 




( Northern 


. T48 


37 


July 


J Southern 


• H9 


40 


J Eastern 


. 152 


4i 




v Western 


- 153 


56 




/Northern 


164 


57 
60 


August 


J Southern 
1 Eastern 


. 165 
. 168 


61 




I Western 


. 169 


78 




/ Northern 


. 182 


79 
82 


September 


] Southern 
] Eastern 
v Western 


• 183 
. 186 


83 




. 187 


98 




/Northern 


. 204 


99 
102 


October 


J Southern 
1 Eastern 


. 205 

. 208 


103 




V Western 


. 209 


116 




/Northern 


. 220 


117 

120 


November 


J Southern 
1 Eastern 


. 221 
. 224 


121 




V Western 


. 225 


134 




/Northern 
] Southern 
I Eastern 
V Western 


. 234 


135 
138 


December 


• 235 
. 238 


139 




• 239 



EASY STAR LESSONS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is very pleasant to know the stars — to be able, like 
Milton's hermit, to 

" Sit and rightly spell 
Of every star that heaven cloth show." 

And it is not at all difficult to learn all the chief star-groups,— 
or constellations, as they are called,— if only the learner 
goes properly to work. Perhaps I ought rather to say, if 
the teacher goes properly to work. I remember, when I was 
a boy about twelve years old, being very much perplexed by 
the books of astronomy, and the star-charts, from which I 
tried to learn the stars. Therewas"Bonnyrastle's Astronomy," 
with a very pretty picture of one constellation, — Andromeda, 
— in which, if one looked very carefully, one could perceive 
stars, though these were nearly lost in the carefully shaded 
picture of the Chained Lady herself. Another book which 
I found in my father's library showed a series of neat 
pictures of all the chief constellations, but gave no clear 
information as to their whereabouts. And the charts which 
I found were not at all easy to understand, being, in fact, 
the usual star-charts, which give no information whatever 
about the places of star-groups on the sky of any place 
or at any time. So that it was only by working my way from 
the Great Bear to constellations close by it, then to others 
close by these, and so on, that I slowly learned the chief 
star-groups. The object of the series of maps in this little 
book is to remove this difficulty for young astronomers. 



io INTRODUCTION. 

The maps are arranged in sets of four, shewing what stars 
can be seen towards the north, towards the south, towards 
the east, and towards the west, at a certain convenient hour 
during every night in the year. This hour varies, night by 
night. On January ist, the hour at which the stars shown 
in the first four maps can be seen in the position shown, 
will be a quarter past nine in the evening ; on January 2, 
about eleven minutes past nine; on January 3, about seven 
minutes past nine, and so on, earlier and earlier each night ; 
on January 5, at nine ; January 8, at a quarter to nine ; 
January 12, half-past eight; January 16, a quarter past eight; 
January 20, eight o'clock ; January 23, a quarter to eight; 
January 27, half past seven; and January 31, a quarter past 
seven ; and so forth. 

The black part of each map shows the sky as it would be 
seen by observers living in latitude 40 north, Great Britain, 
North America and all countries between latitudes 25 and 
6o° north. This is nearly correct (quite sufficiently so for 
the purpose of these maps). The United States range 
in latitude from about ^2° to 49 north, and the British 
Isles from 50 to 59 , an entire range of about 34 ; but by 
far the greater portion of the population of the United 
States and Canada on one side of the Atlantic, and of the 
British Isles and the chief European States on the other, 
occupies the region between the latitudes of New Orleans 
and Glasgow, say 30 and 56 north latitude. The latitude 
40 north is a convenient mid-latitude for the entire range. 
Maps constructed for that latitude — at least maps intended 
only to teach young astronomers the constellations — serve 
quite as well for all latitudes within 15 or 20 on either side 
of 40 . Only it is necessary to indicate where the horizontal 
line lies for each limiting latitude, and for one or two inter- 
mediate latitudes. Not only, too, are such maps serviceable 
in that way over a wide range of latitude, but they serve 
also to illustrate how changes in the observer's latitude 
affect the aspect of the heavens as seen from the place of 
observation. The effects of such changes are indeed 



IN TROD UC TION. 1 1 

described verbally in our text-books of astronomy,* but 
such verbal statements are often misunderstood. The maps 
of my northern nnd southern series show what the actual 
changes are, and also how any one who travels from the 
latitude (say) of London to that of Paris o.r Rome, or 
Naples, or farther south to latitudes corresponding to those 
of Philadelphia, Louisville, New Orleans, and so forth, may 
observe very readily, namely, the changing aspect of the 
northern and southern skies. 

The lesson taught by these maps, and capable of being 
thus readily tested in travel, is that, as we travel north- 
wards the horizon line which at any given hour bounds the 
northern heavens sinks lower and lower; that is, farther and 
farther from the north pole of the heavens, revealing more 
and more stars* 




Fig. i. — illustrating the position of the northern horizon line among 
the stars for New Orleans, Philadelphia, and London. 

Thus a b, fig. i, represents the horizon line due north in 
the latitude of New Orleans (or about 30°); c D, io° lower 

* Sometimes not very correctly. For instance, I have seen the 
remarkable statement made in one Primer of Astronomy that the stars 
which pass overhead in London "rise and set on aslant," — the real fact 
being that they do not rise or set at all, never coming within fully 13° 
of the horizon. 



12 INTRODUCTIOX. 

down among the stars, is the horizon line for Philadelphia : 
and e f, nf lower still, is the horizon for London. In the 
north then we have in London the advantage of seeing a 
considerable star region invisible from Philadelphia and 
other places in the same or nearly the same latitude, and 
we see a yet larger star region invisible from New Orleans. 



V, — 








F' 


Horizon 


of Mw Orleans 


C \ 


Horizon 


of ThiUdeljihin 


1 


B' 


A^ — 


Jbrizon. 


of London- 





Fig. 2. — Illustrating the position of the southern horizon line among 
the stars for New Orleans, Philadelphia, and London. 

On the other hand, turning towards the south, we find 
our range of view correspondingly reduced as compared 
with theirs, the horizon line of Philadelphia lying 1 1 A° 
below ours, and that of New Orleans about 2\\° below 
ours. On the whole, be it noticed, those who reside in 
lower latitudes have the advantage over us; for the star 
region we see low down in the north, though invisible to 
them at the time, yet in due course rises into their view ; 
but the southern star region which they see, and we do not, 
never rises at all above our horizon. 

In the series of northern and southern maps the survey 
of the heavens is extended from the northern horizon 
upwards to the point overhead, and thence (in the southern 
map) downwards to the southern horizon. Since every star 
seen from any given place on the earth's surface must cross 
the meridian (or line running from the northern to the 
southern horizon through the point overhead), these maps 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

show, in fact, every part of the starry heavens visible in the 
latitudes for which they were made. But although every 
constellation thus comes under our survey, yet there are 
some which are not well seen in their full proportions 
either towards the north or towards the south. Those, for 
instance, which come exactly overhead when they are 
crossing the meridian, cannot be drawn in full either in 
northern or southern maps, because one half of each falls to 
the north and the other half to the south. They may be 
seen very well, it is true, when so placed, if the observer lies 
on his back and looks straight up to the point overhead ; 
but that is not a pleasant way of looking at the sky. 

In the eastern and western maps are shown all the con- 
stellations which cannot well be shown in northern and 
southern maps. In this way, we see many star groups 
which have been learned from northern and southern maps, 
and moreover every group which is seen in an eastern map 
will be seen half a year later (or earlier) in a western map. 
But the position of a constellation is entirely different 
according as it is seen in an eastern, southern or western 
map, if its course carries it, when at its highest, to the 
southern skies, or in an eastern, northern or western map 
if its course carries it, when at its highest, to the northern 
skies. No one can be said thoroughly to know the con- 
stellations until he knows them in all the varied aspects 
which they thus present. For though some star groups, like 
the Plough, Orion, the Pleiades, and so on, can be re- 
cognized in all positions, yet most of them are not so well 
marked, and when seen in one position might easily be 
mistaken for new constellations by those who only knew 
them as seen in another position. 

The study of the eastern and western maps forming the 
present series can either be combined with the study of 
northern and southern maps, or pursued separately. 

All the maps are as true for one year as for another. 
They will remain true for hundreds of years. 

Let it be noticed that the plan on which these eastern and 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

western maps are drawn is such that every star is shown at 
its true height above the proper horizon line, and at its true 
proportionate distance to the right or left of the line from 
the middle point marked o'to the proper point overhead for 
the latitude where the observations are made. 

The Eastern and western maps, however, present a 
different appearance from northern and southern maps. 
There is a great space under the various horizon lines in 
these maps, where the stars are shown black on a white 
ground, to indicate that they are not visible from any of the 
places for which the series of maps are drawn. They occupy 
the position shown below the various horizon lines. The 
horizon lines for other places, instead of lying above or 
below the horizon of Philadelphia, all pass through the east 
or west point of this horizon line, but are more or less 
inclined to it. Then again the point overhead for other 
places than Philadelphia, instead of lying in the maps above 
or below the point overhead for Philadelphia, lie to the right 
or to the left of it in the eastern and western maps. All 
this corresponds with the reality. If at any given hour on 
any night you could travel very rapidly many degrees north- 
wards, you would see the northern stars rising, the southern 
stars sinking, while the eastern and western horizons would 
seem to move see-saw fashion, — their northern parts dipping 
so as to show more stars, and their southern parts rising so 
as to hide stars. On the other hand, if you travelled very 
rapidly many degrees south, you would see the southern 
stars rising, the northern sinking : the eastern and western 
horizon points would remain unchanged, and the eastern and 
western Jwrizons would obviously seem to oscillate about the 
points due east and west, their northern parts rising so as to 
hide stars, and their southern parts sinking so as to show 
more stars. 

I may add that if you went as far south as the equator, the 
line marked " equator" in the illustrative maps would come 
upright in the east and west, so as to form what astronomers call 
the "prime vertical." On the other hand, if you could go 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

to the north pole, the line marked " equator" would be your 
horizon line. You will see, as month after month passes, 
that the line marked " equator'' has an unchanging position 
in all eastern and in all western maps ; while the line marked 
" solstitial colure" travels round with the stars, as does also 
another line marked " equinoctial colure," which, in the 
maps for May and November, is seen overhead. These two 
lines, the equinoctial colure and the solstitial colure, are 
parts of great circles which pass through the poles of the 
heavens. 

In each map the Latin names of the constellations are 
given ; but in the description of each map the English names 
will be given, and a few remarks on each constellation. The 
Greek letters used by astronomers are also given ; and the 
young learner who may not happen to know the Greek 
alphabet, will do well to learn the names of the Greek 
letters, as follows : 

a Alpha 
Beta 
y Gamma 
d Delta 
e Epsllon 
C Zeta 
rj Eta 
Theta 
i Iota 
k Kappa 
X Lambda 
/i Mu o) Omega 

Most of the bright stars have proper names, chiefly 
derived from the Arabic. Many of these will be mentioned 
as our survey proceeds. 

The first step toward a knowledge of the stars should be 
the recognition of the Pole-star ; because the pole of the 
heavens being the point round which all the stars are 
seemingly carried, so soon as we know the stars around the 



V 


Nu 


I 


Xi 





micron 


n 


Pi 


P 


Rho 


<r 


Sigma 


T 


Tau 


V 


Upsilon 





Phi 


X 


Chi (Ki) 


+ 


Psi 



,6 INTRODUCTION. 

pole, we have a centre, so to speak, from which we can pass 
to other groups until we know them all. Once known, the 
Pole-star can always be found by the learner, supposing he 
observes the heavens always from the same station j for it 
lies always in the same position (or so nearly so that the 
change can scarcely be noticed). It, for example, you have 
found that from a certain spot in your garden, or from a 
certain window in your house, the Pole-star can be seen just 
above a certain chimney or tree, tiien at any time, on any 
night when the sky is clear, if you betake yourself to tha* 
spot, or look through that window, you will see the Pole-star 
over its accustomed chimney or tree. It is there, indeed, 
all the time, whether the sky be clear or cloudy, whether It 
be day or night. Not only does a knowledge of the Pole-star 
give you a known central-point whence to proceed to other 
stars, but it gives you the means of knowing where lie the 
cardinal points round the horizon ; for, of course, when you 
face the Pole-star, the north lies before you, the south behind 
you, the east on your right, the west on your left 

But to find the Pole-star, it is well to begin with the set of 
stars called in England the Plough, and in America the 
Dipper. This well-marked group includes two stars which 
are called the " Pointers," because they point to the pole- 
star. The Plough or Dipper is so conspicuous and well- 
marked a group that it is easily learned and cannot easily be 
forgotten. Although not very near the pole, it is yet not so 
far from it as to range very widely over the heavens ; but it 
you look toward the north at any hour of any clear night, 
you will seldom require many seconds to find the familiar 
set of seven bright stars, though at one time it is high above 
the pole, at another close to the horizon, now to the right 
of the pole, and anon to the left. In England the seven 
stars never set ; in America some of them set, but still the 
group can be recognized (except at stations in the most 
southern States) even when partly below the horizon. 

Let us inquire, first, where the Plough or Dipper is to be 
looked for, and in what position its stars are placed, at 



INTRODUCTION. 1 7 

various hours all the year round. Of course, in a general 
sense, the group lies always towards the north. The student, 
therefore, will not, like "Bird o' Fredum Sawin'," "w'eel 
roun' about sou'-west " to find it. Still, it saves trouble to 
have some idea where and how the group will be placed, 
especially if the night of observation is half clouded, so that 
all the seven stars are perhaps not seen at once. 

The seven stars lie low down to the north (as shown at 
I in Fig. 3) at about six in the evening of December 21st. 
They are marked, for convenience of reference, with the 
Greek letters by which astronomers know them, namely : 
a (Alpha), 3 (Beta), y (Gamma), 8 (Delta), e (Epsilon), ( (Zeta), 
and rj (Eta). The two stars a and 0, which form the 
side of the Plough farthest from the handle, are called the 
Pointers, because they point (as the arrow shows) toward 
the Pole-star, marked 1 in the picture. This star is easily 
distinguished in the heavens, because it is much brighter 
than any in its immediate neighbourhood. It is not at the 
true pole of the heavens, which lies where the two cross-lines 
of the picture intersect. Consequently, the Pole-star goes 
round the pole, though in a very small circle ;* it is shown 
in four different positions, numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4, in Fig. 3. 
The Greek letter a (Alpha) is assigned to it, because it is the 
alpha star, or leading star, of the group to which it belongs. 

* The actual distance of the Pole-star from the pole is about two 
and a half times the apparent diameter of the moon ; so. that the pole- 
star appears to go round in a circle having a diameter exceeding five 
times the apparent diameter of the moon. This is a much smaller 
circle, however, than most persons would suppose from this description : 
for the mind unconsciously over-estimates the size of the moon. The 
three stars forming the belt of Orion will afford a very good idea of the 
range of the Pole-star around the pole ; the stars to the right and left of 
the middle star of the bell representing almost exactly the relative 
positions of the Pole-star on the right and on the left of the pole of the 
heavens. Or the matter may be thus stated : Orion's belt just about 
measures the distance between 2 and 4, or between 1 and 3. in Fig. 3. 
A star placed at the true pole would make, with star at 2 and 4 (Fig 3), 
a set just like the belt of Orion. 




Horizon of London. 



Fig. 3. — Showing the varying positions of the Plough, the Pole-Star and 

the Guardians of the Pole, viz. at 

I, I, and 1, respectively, at 8 p m. Nov. 22 ; at 9 P.M. Nov. 6 ; at 10 p.m. Oct. 22 

at 11 p.m. Oct. 6 ; at midnight Sept. 21. 
II, 2, and 11, respectively, at 8 p.m. Feb. 19; at 9 p.m. Feb. 5 ; at 10 p.m. Jan. 21 
at 11 p.m. Jan. 5 ; at midnight Dec. 21. 

III, 3, and in, respectively, at 8 p. M.May 21 : at 9 p.m. May 8 ; at 10 p.m. April 23 

at 11 p.m. April 8 ; at midnight March 23. 

IV, 4, and iv, respectively, at 8 p.m. Aucr. 2^ ; at 9 p.m. Aug. 7 ; at 10 p.m. July 22 ; 

at 11 p.m. Julv 7 ; at midnight June 22. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

The seven stars of the Plough belong to the constellation 
(or star group) called Ursa Major, or the Greater Bear j while 
the Pole-star belongs to the constellation called Ursa 
Minor, or the Lesser Bear. Two other stars, also belonging 
to Ursa Minor, are shown in the picture, at j, with their 
proper Greek letters, (Beta) and 7 (Gamma). They are 
called the "Guardians ot the Pole," because they circle around 
it as though keeping watch and ward over the axle-end of 
the great star-dome. The best way, perhaps, to remember 
where the Guardians are to be looked for, is to notice that the 
four stars £ e, ^, and /3 of the Plough are nearly in a straight 
line, and that if a square be supposed to be set up on this 
line, as shown in Fig. 4 (on the side toward the pole), the 




Fig 4. — Showing how the Guardians of the Pole may be 
found when the Plough is known. 

Guardians lie close to that corner of the square which is 
opposite the pointers. You cannot easily fall into any error 
as to the four stars of the Plough, or Dipper, to be used in 
thus finding the Guardians of the Pole, for they are the only 
four which lie nearly in a straight line. But to make assurance 
doubly sure, notice that the star £, which lies at one end of 
the line of four stars, has a companion close by (as shown 
in Fig. 4).* Thus we have at one corner of the square the 

* This little star is called by country folks in England "Jack-by-the- 
Middle-Horse," the stars e, £ and 77 representing the three horses of 

B 2 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

Pointers, at another the double star C, and at the next corner 
the Guardians. 

The Plough, as I have said, is in position I at about six 
o'clock in the evening of December 21st. The Pole-star is 
at this time placed as at 1, a little above and to the right 
(or east) of the true pole. The Guardians are at 1. The 
Plough is now at its lowest; but, as the picture shows, all the 
seven stars are visible at all places in the latitude of Phila- 
delphia. The dotted line, however, which represents the 
horizon of New Orleans, shows that in that latitude only one 
star of the seven can be seen, namely a, the pointer nearest 
to the pole. This star is so bright, that even as far south 
as New Orleans my description of the position of the Plough 
will serve as a sufficient guide to find the pole, if only the 
southerner who uses it notices how Fig. 3 presents the stars 
of the Plough or Dipper, which for him lie below the horizon. 
If this method should not suffice, then let him look for the 
seven stars two hours later, by which time all the other stars 
except C and 17 will have moved round so far toward 
position 11 as to be visible at New Orleans, — t and y lying 
almost on a horizontal line very near indeed to the horizon. 

If on any night toward the end of December, you were to 
watch the northern heavens from about six o'clock, when the 
Plough or Dipper is as at I Fig. 3, until about midnight, you 
would see the group move steadily round till it had reached 
the position marked II. The Guardians of the Pole would 
by that time have reached the position II, and the Pole-star, 
though it would seem to you to be in the same position as 
at the beginning, would in reality have shifted from 1 to 2. 

If you still went on watching, you would find that by about 
six in the morning the Plough would have gone round in the 
direction shown by the arrows until it was in the position 
marked III, high up above the pole and not very far from 
the point overhead. If your watch had begun earlier in the 

the "wain,* or wagon. The small star was a test of eyesight among 
the Arabians. It is, however, very easily seen. The star f is called 
M izar, its companion Alcor. 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

evening, say at about five, when the sky is already quite 
dark (in December), you would have seen the Plough in a 
position between I and IV (but nearer to I); and in the 
course of the entire night, — that is, from evening twilight until 
daybreak, — the Plough would have gone more than half-way 
round, from this last-named position to a position somewhat 
farther round (in the direction shown by the short arrows) 
than II.. 

But in order to see the Plough in these different positions, 
and also in that portion of its course (on either side of IV) 
which in December it traverses during the daytime, it is 
not necessary to keep a long watch upon the group, or to study 
the heavens during those i; wee sma' hours a\ ont the twal " 
wherein the professional astronomer does the best part of 
his work. If you come out in the evening (say about eight) 
once or twice a week on clear nights, all through the winter 
half of the year, and a little later during the summer months, 
you will see the Dipper and all the polar groups carried right 
round the pole. For though, speaking generally, it may be 
said that they complete a circuit once in every day, yet in 
reality they gain about four minutes' motion in the twenty- 
four hours, and thus get further on, little by little, night after 
night — gaining an hour's motion in about a fortnight, two 
hours' motion in a month, twelve hours' motion (or half the 
complete circuit) in half a year, until finally, at the end of 
the year, they have gained a complete circuit. 

Thus at eight o'clock on or about November 22nd, the 
Plough is at I, the Guardians of the Pole are at 1, and the 
Pole-star is at 1. At eight o'clock on or about February 
19th, the Plough is at II, the Guardians are at 11, the Pole- 
star is at 2. At the same hour on or about May 21st, the 
Plough is at III, the Guardians are at in, the Pole-star is at 
3. And lastly at the same hour on or about August 23rd, 
the Plough is at IV, the Guardians are at iv, the Pole-star 
is at 4. 

It is because of this steady turning motion or rotation 
around the poles of the heavens, that the stars of the Plough 



M JNTRODUCTJON. 

(say, for instance, the pointers) form as it were a clock* 
in the sky by which an astronomer at any rate, though 
also any one who is willing to give a little attention to the 
matter, can tell the hour within a few minutes on any night 
in the year. 

A few observations made in this way on a few nights 
during the course of the year, will give a clearer idea of the 
steady motion of the star-dome (resulting in reality from the 
earth's steady rotation on her axis) than any amount of 
description either in books or by word of mouth. 

* We find traces in the writings of old times that the stars were used 
to show the time. For instance, the " first carrier'' in Shakspeare's " First 
Part of King Henry IV." (act ii scene i) says, " An't be not four by 
the day, I'll be hanged; Charles' Wain is over the new chimney." — 
Charles' Wain being the group of seven bright stars which is commonly 
called in England " the Plough" and in America " the Dipper.'' 



THE STARS FOR JANUARY. 



Looking northward (see map, p. 36) we see that Draco (the 
Dragon) occupies the region due north immediately under Ursa 
Minor," the Little Bear." The full proportions of the Dragon 
are clearly and conveniently shewn (except in the southern 
parts of the United States, — for the horizon of New Orleans 
conceals from view the two bright stars y and 0, which 
anciently formed the head of the great monster). In those 
modern maps which show the constellation figures, the 
Dragon is represented differently, and generally somewhat as 
in Fig. 5 (knots and all). But you cannot imagine the stars 
to form a dragon or a snake, in that way. Now we may be 
sure that the ancients, when they called a group of stars by 
any name, really imagined some resemblance between the 
star-group and the figure after which they named it. I have 
heard it said that the liveliest imagination cannot form 
figures of familiar objects out of the stars ; but this is 
certainly a mistake, for I know that when I was a lad, and 
before I had learned to associate the stars with the constella- 
tions at present in use, I used to imagine among the stars the 
figures of such objects as I was most familiar with. In the 
constellation of the Swan, I saw a capital kite. In the Great 
Bear I saw the figure of a toy very common at that time in 
England, representing a monkey that passed over the top of 
a pole. The three stars forming the handle of the Plough 
(r/, (, and e) made the tail of the monkey ; and if you look 
at the Great Bear in the position it now occupies in the early 



24 THE STARS FOR JANUARY. 

evening, you will readily see the figure of a climbing monkey, 
In Perseus I could see a garland of flowers such as my sisters 
used to make. Orion was a climbing giant in the east, — 
a giant going down hill as he passed over to the west. In 
the Serpent-bearer and the Serpent I saw a monstrous sword, 
shaped like the curved sabre which Saladin wielded and so 
forth. No doubt, in the infancy of astronomy, or the world 
itself, men were fanciful in the same way, and the figures 




Fig. 5- 

they assigned to the star groups really seemed pictured in 
the heavens. Add to this the consideration that it would 
not be among the stars overhead, but among those towards 
the horizon, that they would imagine such shapes, and 
I think we can understand where and how they saw a 
dragon in the stars shown in the lower part of our northern 
map. It was not such a nondescript as Fig. 5 which they 
saw, but really a snake-like figure ; and for my own part I 
have no doubt whatever that the stars and y were the eyes 
Of the dragon they imagined, and that its head was pictured 



THE S TARS FOR JANUA R K *5 

in their imagination somewhat as shown in Fig. 6.* On 
referring to the northern map, you will see that I have 
borrowed a star from Hercules to make the snake's head com- 
plete. But that does not trouble my mind 
in the least. The idea of separating the 
constellations one from another was a 
much later one than that of merely 
naming the more remarkable star-groups. 
If one set of stars seemed to resemble 
any object, and another set to restmble 
another object, I think the corresponding, 
names would have been given even though 
some stars of one set were included 
within the other set. In fact this very 1m S- 6 

constellation of the Dragon seems to me to show that 
our modern constellation figures have been largely reduced 
in extent. When I look northward at the Dragon placed 
as in the northern map, I see not a mere snake with his 





* Aratus, in describing the constellations, speaks of the Dragon as 
'with eyes oblique retorted, that askant cast gleaming fire." 



20 THE STARS FOR JANUARY. 

head as in Fisr. 5, but a monstrous winged serpent, as in 
Fig. 7 ; only, to make the figure complete, I have to take 
in a large piece from the Little Bear. The stars thus 
borrowed make a great wing for the Dragon ; the stars «, \}r, 
15, etc., of the Dragon make another wing ; and the neck, 
body, and tail run from ( through tj, 6, 1 and a to X. 

You may, perhaps, think that it matters very little what 
figures the ancients really imagined among the stars. But 
you will be disposed to think differently when I mention 
that the supposed want of resemblance now between the 
star-groups and the figures assigned to them, has led some to 
form the bold idea that there was once a strong resemblance, 
but that some stars have gone out, others have shone forth 
more strongly or are altogether new, and that thus the 
resemblance has been destroyed. When we remember that 
our sun is only one among the vast number of suns, it becomes 
rather a serious matter for the inhabitants of the earth if so 
many suns have really changed. For, in that case, our sun 
may soon change in his turn, and either broil us up with 
excess of heat or leave us to perish miserably from extremity 
of cold. However, I think the explanation which I have 
given shows that the resemblance formerly imagined still 
remains, and that it is only because modern astronomy has 
docked the dimensions of the old figures that they no longer 
correspond with their names. 

Above the Dragon we see the Lesser Bear, the two Guardians 
of the Pole, /3 and y, having swung round a little past the 
lowest part of their circuit. Approaching the north from 
the left are the stars of Cepheus, which will in a month or 
two be more favourably placed for study. Notice the glory 
of the " milky way" overhead. Looking that way, also, the 
very bright star Capella will attract your notice. It belongs 
to the constellation Auriga, or " the Charioteer." There is 
a nearly vacant space between Auriga and Ursa Minor, 
whicli seems to show that in that direction the system of 
stars to which our sun belongs is not so richly strewn with 
suns as elsewhere. And although, when a telescope is 



THE STARS FOR JANUARY. *: 

turned toward this region, hundreds and thousands of stars 
are brought into view, yet not nearly so many are seen as 
when the same telescope is directed toward Perseus or 
Cassiopeia. 

And now turning our back upon the Pole-star, let us look 
toward the south (see the southern map, p. 37). The 
mighty river Eridanus occupies nearly the whole space 
between the equator and the southern horizon. This 
constellation, which is one of the most ancient star-groups, is 
a great deal too large ; it has not room to turn itself. 
Observe how poor Bayer (the astronomer who first gave to 
the stars of each constellation the letters of the Greek 
alphabet) was perplexed by the large number of stars he had 
to deal with. There are seven Taus (in reality there are nine 
but the other two are small), and five Upsilons are shown 
(out of seven), while several stars which ought to have 
received their proper Greek letters, have been only num- 
bered. 

Above Eridanus is the fine constellation Taurus, or " the 
Bull," belonging to the zodiacal twelve which mark the 
road- way of the sun and planets. The sun's path, or 
ecliptic, is marked on the map, the portion shown being 
that which he traverses in May and June. The symbol n 
represents the signs of " the Twins/' the sun entering that 
sign, on his course toward the left shown by the arrow, 
about the 21st of May — which is, therefore, not the time to 
look for Taurus or the Pleiades, seeing that the sun is 
shining in the midst of their region of the heavens. The 
sign of Gemini, used formerly to agree with the constellation 
of " the Twins," but now, as the map shows, falls upon 
Taurus. 

The group of stars called the Pleiades is one of the most 
interesting objects in the heavens. In former times they 
were thought to exert very important influences on the 
weather, probably because when the sun was in Taurus, 
which then corresponded with the end of April, it was a 
"time when all Nature seemed to spring into activity. 



28 THE S2ARS FOR JANUARY. 

Admiral Smyth says that the passage in Job, translated, 
" Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, 
or loose the bands of Orion?" etc., should be rendered 
thus : 

" Canst thou shut up the delightful teemings of Chimah ? 
Or the contractions of Chesil canst thou open ?" 

Chimah representing Taurus, or the constellation occupied 
by the sun (in Job's time) in spring (April and May) ; 
while Chesil is not Orion, but Scorpio, the constellation 
which in Job's time was occupied by the sun in autumn 
(October and November). It is interesting to notice the 
ancients thus regarding the stellar influences, as exerted, not 
when the stars in question are visible in the night-time, but 
when their rays are combined with those of the sun, which 
also was the way in which astrologers regarded the stars. 
Taurus now shines highest in the skies at midnight towards 
the end of November, but in Job's time six or seven weeks 
earlier. Hesiod, speaking of their return to the night skies 
after being lost in the sun's rays, which in his day would be 
in early autumn, says : 

" There is a time when forty days they lie, 
And forty nights, conceafd from human eye: 
But in the course of the revolving year, 
When the swain sharps the scythe, again appear." 

With the telescope, more than two hundred stars can be 
seen in this group. To ordinary vision, six only are 
visible. Yet many persons see seven, not a few can see 
nine or ten, and Kepler tells us that Moestlin could 
count no less than fourteen stars, without telescopic aid. 

The bright and somewhat ruddy star Aldebaran is in the 
head of the Bull, formed by the closely clustering group 
between Aldebaran, e and y. This group is called the 
Hyades, from a Greek word signifying rain, the influence of 
these stars being considered showery. The two stars 3 and 
{ form the tips of the bulls horns. 



THE STARS FOR JANUARY. 29 

Facing the Bull, we see on the left the glorious constella- 
tion Orion. But this constellation is so important that 
I will defer my account of this splendid group to next 
month, when, at the hours selected for our evening observa- 
tions, he shines in full glory upon the meridian. 

Let us turn now to the eastern, then to the western skies, 
to see what star groups are in view there (see maps, pp. 40 
and 41). 

In the east, we see the three zodiacal constellations — 
Gemini (the Twins), Cancer (the Crab), and Leo (the Lion) ; 
the horns of Taurus (the Bull) can also be seen above 
Gemini. 

Gemini derives its name from the two bright stars — still 
twin stars in lustre — Castor and Pollux. It is said that 
Castor was formerly the brighter ; but at present Pollux is 
the brighter, according to Sir J. Herschel's estimate, nearly 
in the proportion of four to three. Formerly this group was 
represented by a pair of kids ; but the Greeks substituted 
twin-children with their feet resting on the Milky Way. 
The Arabian astronomers changed the twins to peacocks. ; 
while the astronomers of the Middle Ages substituted two 
winged angels for the pair. The constellation would 
perhaps remind one very much of two kids, if it were not so 
like two angels, or two peacocks, or twin brothers. Gemini 
is supposed by astrologers to be a sign which rules specially 
over London. It is also regarded as specially favourable to 
sailors. 

Cancer was called " the dark sign" in old times, because 
it shows so few stars. But it is full of interest to the 
telescopist. The fine cluster called Prsesepe, or the 
Beehive, visible to the naked eye only as a faint fleck of 
luminous cloud, is found, when examined with the telescope, 
to contain multitudes of stars. 

The fine constellation Leo, of which half is visible in 
the east, at the times named, presents a striking contrast 
to Cancer, containing many bright stars. The portion 
shown is commonly called the Sickle in Leo, and is 



3° 



THE STARS FOR JANUARY. 



interesting as including the point in the heavens whence 
the famous November shooting stars, seen in showers on 
the morning of November 14th, J 833, 1866, &c, seem to 
radiate. High up in the east is Auriga (the Charioteer), with 
the bright star Capella, one of the three chief brilliants of 
the northern heavens, the other two being Arcturus and 
Vega. The Lesser Dog is seen below, and rather to the 
left of Gemini. Almost on the horizon of London, and 
very little raised above the horizon of either Philadelphia or 
New Orleans, is the solitary star Alphard, in the neck of the 
Sea-serpent (Hydra). 

Turning towards the west, we find the inconspicuous 
zodiacal constellation Pisces (the Fishes), below which can 
be seen a small part of Aquarius (the Water-bearer). Above 
Pisces we see Aries (the Ram). The leading constellations 
in the west are, however, Andromeda (the Chained Lady), 




Fig. 8. — Andromeda and Lacerta. 



and Pegasus (the Winged Horse). It will be observed that 
the attitude of Pegasus, as he is at present seen in the west, 
is not precisely that which we expect a horse to occupy, 
even if he has wings permitting of his assuming other 
varieties of position than are usual among ordinary horses. 



THE STARS FOR JANUARY. 3 J 

Neither is Andromeda in the attitude customarily adopted 
by ladies. We thus see illustrated the necessity of studying 
the constellations in all the positions they can assume. 
Owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the constellations 
Andromeda and Pegasus, like most others, are so situated 
that they no longer assume, in any part of our heavens, the 
natural positions which, when they were first invented, they 
occupied in one part at least oi their revolution. But they 
still assume positions much more nearly corresponding with 
the proper attitude of the figures they are supposed to 
represent. If these constellations were only learned as so 
figured, the student would not recognise them at all in such 
attitudes as they have at present. Their supposed figures 
are somewhat as represented in Figs. 8 and o. 




I'egasus and one oi the Fishes. 



STAR MAPS FOR JANUARY. 



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THE NORTHERN MAP FOR JANUARY 



37 




THE SOUTHERN MAP FOR JANUARY, 



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THE EASTERN MAP FOR JANUARY. 






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THE WESTERN MAP FOR JANUARY. 



THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY. 



The northern heavens (map, p. 56) present no change of 
special importance since last month. The Dragon has been 
carried away from his former hovering position, and now 
appears as if swooping downward, though in a direction 
contrary to that of his real motion around the pole. The 
ancient observers do not seem to have attached any impor- 
tance, by the way, to the direction in which the star-sphere 
turns ; and, indeed, a motion so slow as not to be percep- 
tible by ordinary vision might well be left out of account 
in forming imaginary star-groups. Some of the figures go 
forward, as Orion, the Great Bear, Bootes (the Herdsman), 
the Lion, and so forth ; others go backward, as the Dragon, 
the Ram, the Bull, Pegasus (the Winged Horse), and so on; 
while others, like Ophiuchus (the Serpent-bearer), are 
supposed to face the observer and so travel sideways ; and 
others again, travel on their head, as Hercules, Cepheus, 
and Andromeda. It is quite clear that those who invented 
the constellation figures did not trouble themselves much 
about the rotation of the star-vault. 

There may be noticed in the northern heavens, as seen 
in February, a vacant space above the pole, girt round by 
the constellations Auriga (the Charioteer) overhead, Perseus 
(the Rescuer), Cassiopeia (the Seated Lady), Cepheus (her 
royal husband), and the two Bears. In this poverty-stricken 
region there are no stars of the first three magnitudes, and 
only four or five of the fourth magnitude. The ancien»t 

c 2 



4 4 THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY. 

astronomers could imagine no constellations in these 
spaces. It is to the moderns, and especially to Hevelius. 
that we owe the constellations which have been figured in 
these barren districts. The Camelopard, or Giraffe, is one. 
the Lynx another. I cannot say, for own my part, that I see 
either a giraffe or a lynx there. Certainly, if you draw the 
connecting lines shown in the map. you get as fair a Dicture 
of a giraffe (inverted at piesent) as can possibly be made 
with a couple of lines ; but it seems to me — though I do 
not claim to be an artist— that rather more than two lines 
are needed to picture a respectable giraffe. Besides, the 
lines are not on the sky, and the liveliest fancy would not 
think of connecting these stars by imaginary lines, so 
widely remote are the stars, and so insignificant. 

The Little Bear is now gradually getting round (at the 
selected hour of evening observation) to a position such as 
a bear might reasonably assume. Last month, this small 
bear was hanging head downward by the end of his 
absurdly long tail. He is now slowly rising from that 
undignified position, and by next month he will have fairly 
placed himself on his feet. For the present we can leave 
him to his struggles j but next month we shall consider his 
history and the duties which he has discharged for many 
hundreds of years. 

Turning to the southern skies (p. 57), we find full compen- 
sation for the relatively uninteresting aspect of the northern 
heavens. The most resplendent constellation in the heavens 
is now in full glory in the south. There, close to the 
meridian, or mid-south, 

" Begirt with many a blazing star, 
Stands the great giant Algebar, 
Orion, hunter of the beast : 
His sword hangs gleaming by his side, 
And on his arm the lion's hide 
Scatters across the midnight air 
The golden radiance of its hair." 

No one can mistake this most beautiful constellation 



THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY. 



45 



The two bright shoulder stars, Betelgeux (a) and Bellatrix 
(y), the brilliant star Rigel on the giant's advanced foot, the 
triply gemmed belt (£, e, and 5), and the pendent sword 
tipped with the bright star t, distinguish Orion unmistak- 
ably. But, besides these glories, there are others ; the 




Fisr. 10. — Orion. 



curve of small stars forming the giant's shield (a lion's hide), 
the misty light of the great nebula which lies on the sword 
(where shown), and on clear nights the dappled light of the 
Milky Way, which really extends over a part of this 
constellation, to say nothing of numbers of faint stars 
scattered all over it, justify the words of the poet, who 
sang : 



46 THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY. 

"Orion's beams ! Orion's beams ! 

His star-gemmed belt, and shining blade; 
His isles of light, bis silvery streams, 
And gloomy gulf of mystic shade.'' 

From the beginning of astronomy, and probably long before 
astronomy was thought of, this constellation was figured as 
a giant : sometimes a giant hunter, a sort of celestial 
Nimrod ; sometimes as a warrior. He commonly wields an 
immense club in his right, hand (the star v marks the handle 
of the club), and a shield (formed by the stars ir v n 2 , etc.) in 
his left. The star /3 of the constellation Eridanus really 
marks the giant's bent knee ; and originally the constellation 
Lepus, or " the Hare," formed a chariot in which the hunter 
or warrior stood. In some old manuscripts of the Middle 
Ages, the stars of Lepus formed a throne for Orion. In 
fact, this little constellation, although named the Hare from 
time immemorial, has been called by other names, insomuch 
that Ideler, after quoting several, wrathfully adds, "And God 
knows how many more there are." 

Fig. 10 shows Orion as he is now generally pictured. He 
is somewhat out of drawing, because of the necessity of 
keeping certain stars in particular positions with respect to 
him. Thus Betelgeux is derived from the Arabic ibt-al- 
j'auzd, the giant's shoulder; Bellatrix, or " the Amazon star," 
belongs of right to the other shoulder, and Rigel to the 
advanced foot, while the three stars of the belt fix the 
position of the giant's waist. To tell the truth, he is an 
ill-shaped giant, any way, and cannot be otherwise depicted. 

Below Lepus (the Hare) you see the neat little group 
Columba, or "the Dove." This is one of the younger con- 
stellations, and was invented by Hevelius, perhaps to show 
that the ship Argo, which you see low down on the left, is 
no other than Noah's Ark. In fact, the name given to the 
small group originally was Columba Noachi, or "Noah's 
Dove." Approaching the mid south, you now see the 
brightest star in the whole heavens — Sirius, the famous 
Dog-star. The constellation Canis Major (the Greater Dog) 



THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY. 47 

which might much better be called simply Canis, was one 
of Orion's hunting-dogs, Canis Minor being the other ; but 
we can hardly suppose Lepus was the sole prey pursued 
by so great a giant and two such fine dogs. The constella- 
tion Canis Major is chiefly remarkable for the Dog-star. 
In old times this star was thought to bring pestilence. 
Homer speaks of it (not by name, however) ?s the star 

" Whose burning breath 
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues and death." 

Many among the ancients supposed that this star was in 
reality as large as the sun. Thus Manilius said : 

" 'T is strongly credited this owns a light 
And runs a course not than the sun's less bright : 
But that, removed from sight so great a way, 
It seems to cast a dim and weaker ray. " 

It has been shown in our own time, however, that even 
this estimate, which was by many thought too daring, falls 
far short of the truth. It has been calculated that Sirias 
gives out two hundred times as much light (and doubtless 
two hundred times as much heat) as our sun. So that it 
would make us rather uncomfortable if our sun were removed 
and Sirius set in its place. Sir W. Herschel says that when 
he turned his large four-feet mirror on this star, the light 
was like that of the rising sun, and it was impossible to 
look at the star without pain to the eye. Sirius is in reality 
in rapid motion, though owing to his enormous distance he 
seems at rest. He is rushing through space at the rate of 
about thirty miles in every second of time ! In a year he 
traverses nearly six times the distance which separates our 
earth from the sun. But this enormous annual journey is 
only about T - 7 -7nRro tn P art °f tne distance which separates 
him from our earth ; and as he is travelling away from us, 
we need not be greatly troubled on account of him. He is 
so far from us that his light has been no less than twenty 
years on its way to us, so that in reality, instead of saying 
we see Sirius, we ought to say we see where Sirius was 



> 



48 THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY. 

some twenty years ago. Most of the stars are even farther 
away, so that if every one of them were in a single instant 
destroyed, we should still see them — that is, their light — 
for many years, and probably the greater number of them 
would still seem to be shining in the heavens long after the 
youngest of us were dead ; perhaps even after our great- 
grandchildren had passed away. 

Canis Minor (the Lesser Dog) is a much less important 
star-group than Canis Major, but still it is one of the ancient 
constellations. Its chief star is called Procyon, or " the Fore- 
dog," because his star is seen as a morning star earlier than 
Sirius. The Arabian astronomers gave it a name of similar 
meaning, to wit, Al-kelb- al-mutckaddem ; but I think 
Procyon sounds almost as well, and as it is the name by 
which the star is usually called, it may, perhaps be better 
to use it instead of the Arabian name, though this is very 
pretty. Procyon, like Sirius, was supposed to be a star of 
evil omen, especially as bringing bad weather. "What 
meteoroscoper," said Leonard Digges, the astrologer, " yea, 
who that is learned in matters astronomical, noteth not the 
great effects at the rising of the star called the Litel 
Dogge r 

The constellation Gemini, or the Twins, is now approach- 
ing the south, but will be more fully within the range of our 
next monthly map. The sign marked ® is that of Cancer, 
or the Crab, which the sun enters at midsummer. You 
will observe that we have now reached the part of the 
ecliptic highest above the equator, which is, of course, the 
part reached by the sun at midsummer. The point marked 
® is at its highest in the south at noon on or about June 
a 1 st, and is then occupied by the sun j it is at its highest • 
in the south at midnight on or about December 20, and the 
sun is then exactly opposite to this point, or at his lowest 
below the northern horizon. 

Those who live as far south as New Orleans, see, well 
raised above the horizon, the star Canopus, in the stern of 
the good ship Argo. There is presented to them, at this 



THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY. 49 

season, a view of more first magnitude stars than can be 
seen at any other time in one quarter of the heavens. F01 
besides the splendid equal-sided triangle formed by 
Procyon, Betelgeux, and Sirius, they see Aldebaran, Rigel, 
and Canopus, the last-named surpassing every star in the 
heavens except Sirius alone. 

Next month, the great ship Argo will have come better 
into view ; and I defer till then my account of this fine 
constellation. 

The eastern and western maps for this month (pp. 60 and 
61), when compared with those for January, show how the 
stars,observed at any given hour month after month, change in 
position just as though they were watched hour after houi 
on the same night. Thus in the January eastern map the Lion 
is seen low down, and the arrows scattered over the map, 
which (except the arrow on the ecliptic) point the way the 
stars are apparently moving, show that the Lion is passing 
upwards and slightly towards the right, or to just such a 
position as the constellation has in the eastern map for this 
month. In fact, if the stars had been observed in January 
two hours alter the time when the Lion was placed as 
shown in the January map, it would have been found that 
the Lion had reached the exact position occupied by the 
constellation in our present map. Two hours' motion on 
any given night produces the same change of position as 
one month's motion for stars seen at any given hour. This 
remark applies to all stars ; and the young student will do 
well to compare together the two eastern maps and the two 
western maps (for January and February), following up the 
work by noting month after month how the star groups 
rise up from out of the eastern horizon, and pass down to- 
wards the western. Also he will find it interesting to 
notice how six months hence the stars which are now rising 
at any given hour in the east will be found at the same 
hour setting in the west ; while those which at any hour are 
now setting in the west will be found six months hence 
rising in the east. What is true of the present time, and 



50 THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY 

six months from the present time, is true of any part of the 
year, and six months before or after that time. 

In the east we see that at the hours named under the 
map (and of course at intermediate hours on the intermediate 
dates) the constellation Auriga has passed overhead, leav 
ing only two stars visible in the space covered by the map, 
and even those two (£ and 6) have passed over to the 
western side of the north and south line overhead. The 
Lion is now the chief constellation of the east ; and the 
student will do well to study it there, for this group is not 
so well seen at any other part of the year. When in the 
south, indeed, it is better placed for the astronomer, who 
cannot have the stars too high above the horizon. But the 
general student of the skies can note the shape of star 
groups more conveniently when they are at a moderate 
elevation. 

I think few can recognize in the constellation Leo, as 
now figured, the shape of a lion. The stars n, e, and X 
now mark the place of the lion's head, while his tail ends 
at the star 0, and his forepaws reach from n to o. It re- 
quires a strong imagination to see a lion among these stars. 
(See further on, fig. 16.) But I think a much larger lion 
can be readily seen, the head lying in Cancer, the mane 
reaching to Leo Minor, the forepaws on the stars (, e, and 
d, which mark the head of Hydra (the Sea-Serpent), and the 
hinder paws on the stars p and ( of Virgo. It seems to me 
likely that originally the constellations named after men, 
animals, and other objects, were not, as now, separated 
from each other; but that if any group, large or small, 
seemed to resemble any object it was named after that 
object, whether it formed part or not of another group 
already named, or whether it included part of such a group 
or was itself partly included in another constellation. 

Of Virgo, which is just begining to rise above the hori- 
zon, I shall have more to say next month. 

In the west Pegasus, which was nearly in full view last 
month, has almost wholly set. Andromeda (still head 



THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY. 51 

downwards) is following the Winged Horse, but not to- 
wards the same part of the horizon. Perseus, or " the 
Rescuer," who was overhead last month, now lies between 
Andromeda and the point overhead, while Auriga (the 
Charioteer) now occupies the highest region in the heavens. 

Two interesting constellations, which last month could 
not be seen in the western map, have now passed within its 
precincts, namely, Taurus (the Bull), and Cetus (the Sea 
Monster or Whale). (Figs. 11 and 12.) 

It is very easy to identity the Bull, first by the Pleiads, 
and, secondly, by the bright and somewhat ruddy Alde- 
baran. The famous cluster — the so-called seven Pleiads — ■ 
in reality contains an immense number of stars, foiming a 
very beautiful and amazing object when examined even 
with a small telescope. It is fabled that there were once 
seven Pleiads visible to the naked eye, but that one, called 
the lost Pleiad, has faded from view. With good eyesight, 
however, not only can the original seven Pleiads be dis- 
tinctly seen, but several others. A few observers have 
even seen as many as fourteen Pleiads. 

The star o (Omicron) Ceti is perhaps the most interesting 




Fig. 11. — Cetus. 



52 



THE STARS FOR FEBRUARY. 



star in the heavens. It is shown, in the map, of the second 
magnitude, but it is in reality variable. At its brightest it 
shines as a star of the second magnitude ; but it only shines 
thus for about two months out of ten. For about a fort- 
night it shines as a star of the second magnitude, then by 
degrees it fades away, until at the end of three months it 
can hardly be seen. After remaining about five months 
invisible, it gradually increases in brightness for about three 
months, when it is again a second magnitude star. It 
occupies about 331 days 8 hours in going through these 
changes. 




Fig. 12. — Taurus. 



STAR MAPS FOR FEBRUARY. 



56 





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THE NORTHERN MAP FOR FEBRUARY. 



57 



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THE EASTERN MAP FOR FEBRUARY. 



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THE WESTERN MAP FOR FEBRUARY 



THE STARS FOR MARCH. 



Ursa Major is now (p. 78) swinging round toward the 
highest part ©f his course above the pole. It is his forepaw 
that you see, marked by the letters 6, k, and 1, very nearly 
above the pole ; while a and are the " Pointers " whose 
motion has been already described. 

The Little Bear is nearly in a horizontal position, and 
I proceed to give a short account of this small but most 
interesting constellation. 

I do not think that the Little Bear, like the larger one, 
was so named because of any imagined resemblance to a 
bear. (See Fig. 13.) The original constellation of the 




Fig- 13- — Ursa Minor. 

Great Bear was much older than the Little Bear, and so 
many different nations agreed in comparing the group to a 



04 THE STARS FOR MARCH. 

bear, that there must have been a real resemblance to that 
animal in the constellation as first figured. Later, when 
star-maps came to be arranged by astronomers who had 
never seen bears, they supposed the three bright stars 
forming the handle of the plough to represent the tail 
of the bear, though the bear is not a long-tailed animal. 
They thus set three stars for the bear's tail, and the quad- 
rangle of stars forming the plough itself for the bear's body. 
This done, it was natural enough that, seeing in the group 
of stars now forming the Little Bear the three stars a, 8, and 
e on one side, and the quadrangle formed by the stars (, 17, 
#, and y on the other, they should call this group the Little 
Bear, assigning the three stars to his tail and the quad- 
rangle to his body. Thus did the constellation of the Little 
Bear probably take its rise. It was not formed by fanciful 
folks in the childhood of the world, but by astronomers. 
Yet it must not be imagined that the constellation is a 
modern one. It not only belongs to old Ptolemy's list, but 
is mentioned by Aratus, who borrowed his astronomy from 
Eudoxus, who " flourished " (as the school-books call it) 
about 360 years before the Christian era. It is said that 
Thales formed the constellation, in which case it must have 
reached the respectable age of about 2,500 years. It is 
usually pictured as shown in Fig. 1, and a very remarkable 
animal it is. 

But if the Little Bear is not a very fine animal, it is a 
most useful constellation. From the time when the 
Phoenicians were as celebrated merchant-seamen as the 
Venetians afterward became, and as the English-speaking 
nations now are, this star-group has been the cynosure of 
every sailor's regard. In fact, the word " cynosure " was 
originally a name given either to the whole of this con- 
stellation or to a part of it. Cynosure has become quite a 
poetical expression in our time, but it means literally " the 
dog's tail ;" and either the curved row of stars a, 8, *, ( f and 
3 was compared to a dog's tail, or else the curved row of 
stars 4, 5, 0, and y. I incline, for my own part, to think 



7 HE STARS FOR MARCH. 63 

these last formed the true cynosure — for this reason simply, 
that when the constellation was first formed these stars were 
nearer the pole than was our present Pole-star. Even in 
the time of Ptolemy, the star /3 was nearer the pole than a, 
and was called in consequence by the agreeable name Al- 
Kaukab-al-shemali, which signifies " the northern star." 
(For the reason why the fixed stars thus changed in position 
with regard to the pole of the heavens, I must refer you to 
books on astronomy. I only note here that the star-sphere 
remains the same all the time ; but the earth, which is 
whirling on its axis like a mighty top, is also reeling like a 
top, and just as the axis of a top is swayed, now east now 
west, now north now south, so does the axis of the earth 
vary in position as she reels. I may add that the reeling 
motion is very much slower than the whirling motion. The 
earth whirls once on her axis in a day, but she only reels 
round once in 25,868 years.) 

Admiral Smyth gives some interesting particulars about 
the two stars j3 and y, called the Guardians of the Pole. 
"Recorde tells us, ; ' he says, " in the * Castle of Knowledge/ 
nearly three hundred years ago, that navigators used two 
pointers in Ursa — ' which many do call the Shafte, and 
others do name the Guardas, after the Spanish tonge.' 
Richard Eden, in 1584, published his 'Arte of Navigation,' 
and therein gave rules for the ' starres,' among which are 
special directions for the two called the Guards, in the 
mouth of the * home/ as the figure was called." (The Pole- 
star would mark the small end of the home.) "In the 
* Safeguard of Saylers ' (16 19) are detailed rules for finding 
the hour of the night by the ' guardes." ' How often/ says 
Hervey, in his "Meditations," have these stars beamed 
bright intelligence on the sailor and conducted the keel to 
its destined haven ! " 

The constellation Cepheus is now about to pass below the 
pole. The royal father of Andromeda is presented in a 
somewhat unkingly attitude at present — standing, to wit, 
upon his royal head. In any case, the constellation is not 

D 



66 THE STARS FOR MARCH. 

very like a crowned king. The stars (, *, and 8 form his 
head. (A London cockney might find an aid to the 
memory by noting that these letters z, e, and d spell, after a 
sort, " iz 'ed ; " but I think young folks in America can 
hardly imagine the utter demoralization of cockney 
aspirates.) The constellation Cepheus was probably simply 
fitted in, that the history of the sacrifice and rescue of 
Andromeda might be complete ; we have Cepheus and Cas- 
siopeia, her father and mother, on one side, and, as will be 
seen later, Andromeda herself, and her rescuer, Perseus, on 
the other. But of all the figures, Cassiopeia alone seems 
suggested by the stars themselves ; or rather a chair is 
suggested, and imagination readily suggested a lady seated 
therein. Why Cassiopeia, rather than any other lady from 
Eve downward, is not apparent. 

Turning to the southern heavens (p. 79), we find that a 
remarkable change has taken place since last month. Orion 
has passed over toward the south-west, whither the Greater 
Dog is following him ; and where Orion stood in full glory 
last month, there is now a singularly barren region. Not 
only are no stars of the first four magnitudes visible 
between Hydra and the Milky Way, but over a large portion 
of this space there is not a single star visible to the naked 
eye ; insomuch that an ingenious Frenchman named 
M. Kabache was led to suppose that there is here a 
monstrous dark body millions of times larger than the sun, 
and hiding from view stars which really lie in this direction. 
He even went so far as to assert that when the sky was very 
clear he had discerned the circular outline of this great 
body,* — the centre, he said, round which all the stars are 

* I heard of a similar case not a hundred miles from Louisville. 
A philosopher whose theories required that a planet should travel closer 
to the sun than Mercury, and who had somehow calculated that such a 
planet supposed to have been seen by a Frenchman named Lescarbault 
in March, 1859, would pass across the sun's face in a certain September, 
succeeded in seeing it there. Subsequent calculation showed, un- 
fortunately, that the planet, if it exists at all, would indeed have theu 



THE STARS FOR MARCH. 6? 

travelling. But unfortunately for our faith in this little 
story, the telescope shows multitudes of small stars scattered 
over the whole of this region. 




Fig. 14. — The constellations, the Great Ship Argo, Canis Major, 
and Columba. 

The constellation Argo, or the Great Ship (Fig. 14), now 
occupies the region immediately above the southern horizon. 
This constellation is not at all well seen in England, or even 
(as you can see from the way in which the horizon line of 
the latitude of Philadelphia divides it) in the greater part of 
the United States. Only when the latitude of New Orleans 
is approached does the keel of the ship, and the bright star 
Canopus in the rudder (or guiding oar), show out well 

lain in the same direction as the sun, but beyond him, not on this side 
of him ! An old proverb says that certain persons should have good 
memories ; it is at least equally true that one who proposes to invent 
an observation should be a correct computer. 

D 2 



68 THE STARS FOR MARCH. 

above the horizon. But, to say the truth, this fine celestial 
ship nowhere represents in these days the ship-shape 
appearance which it had some three thousand years ago. 
The same cause which has shifted the position of the poles 
of the heavens, has tilted Argo up by the stern, until she 
resembles rather one half of a vessel which has been broken 
on a ridge of rocks, than as she was formerly described, 
"the stern half of a vessel drawn poop foremost into 
harbour." I have drawn her in Fig. 14 as she was placed 
three thousand years ago. You have only to tilt the picture 
sideways a little, until Sirius on the Dog's nose is above 
Canopus, to place the constellation as it now appears above 
the southern horizon. I believe that in reality the old 
constellation, besides being better placed, was much larger 
than the present. The fine group of clustering stars now 
covering the Dove and the hind-quarters of the Dog, 
belonged, I think, to the stern of Argo. In fact, these stars 
form the well-marked outline of one of the old-fashioned 
lofty poops. The Dove, by the way, is a well-placed little 
constellation ; but the Dog, prancing just behind the stem 
of Argo, forms an altogether incongruous element in the 
picture. On account of its great size the constellation 
Argo is divided. We have Puppis, the poop or stern; 
Malus, the mast ; Vela, the sails ; Carina, the keel. Not to 
confuse the picture by many lines I have not shown the 
outlines of these parts. In fact it can only be properly 
shown in a regular star-atlas. (In Map V. of my school star- 
atlas for schools these sub-divisions are shown.) Only it 
is to be noticed that while the Greek letters refer to the 
whole ship, the italic and Roman letters refer to the 
various parts. Thus the stars marked p and f (on the 
summit of the stern) would be called respectively p Argus 
and C Argus, but the stars close by marked k x and n x would 
be called k Puppis and n Puppis, and so on. 

The part of the Milky Way occupied by Argo is remark- 
aLi* for its singularly complex shape. It is well to notice 



THE STARS FOR MARCH. 69 

how incorrect is the ordinary description of the Milky Way 
as a zone of cloudy starlight circling the entire heavens. 
Here you see it spreading out into a great fan-shaped 
expansion, separated from a somewhat similar one by a 
wide dark space. 

Above the equator, two zodiacal constellations are seen, 
— the fine constellation Gemini, or "the Twins," the poor one 
Cancer, or " the Crab " Cancer used, to be the sign in which 
the sun attained his greatest elevation in summer, or rather 
it was as he entered this sign that he was at his highest. 
But you see from the map that all the way through the part 
of Gemini shown, and onward through Cancer, the sun's 
course is down-hill, — or, in other words, it is after mid- 
summer that he traverses these constellations. The sign SI 
marks the beginning of the zodiacal sign of the Lion. 

The constellation Gemini no doubt derived its name 
from the two stars, nearly equal in lustre, Castor and 
Pollux. Of these, Castor was formerly the brighter, but 
now Pollux is brighter, nearly in the proportion of four to 
three. Formerly, as I have already mentioned, this star- 
group was represented by a pair of kids; but the Greeks 
substituted twin-children with their feet resting on the Milky 
Way • the Arabian astronomers, in their turn, changed 
the twins to peacocks ; and the astronomers of the Middle 
Ages pictured the twins as two winged angels. 

Gemini is said by astrologers to be the sign specially 
ruling over London, though why this should be so they do 
not tell us. We can understand why sailors should regard 
the sign as propitious to them, for when the sun is in Gemini 
the seas are usually calm, — at least summer is more pleasant 
for sailors than winter. You will remember that the ship in 
which Paul sailed from Malta had for its sign the twin 
brothers Castor and Pollux. 

As the Twins pass over towards the west, hour by hour, or 
night by night at the same hour, they come into the position 
described by Tennyson, where he sings of 



70 THE ST A RS FOR MA K CH. 

"a time of year, 
When the face of night is fair* on the dewy downs. 

And the shining daffodil dies, and the Charioteer 
And starry Gemini hang like glorious crowns 

Over Orion's grave low down in the west." 

Cancer is a very poor constellation to the eye, but full of 
interest to the telescopist. Even with a very small telescope, 
the little cluster called Praesepe, or " the Beehive/' is found to 
be full of stars. Galileo, whose best telescope was but a 
poor one, counted thirty-eight stars in this cluster, which to 
the naked eye looks like a mere fleck of faintly-luminous 
cloud. 

The weather-wise of old times regarded Proesepe with 
peculiar interest. When it was clearly visible they expected 
fine dry weather, while its gradual disappearance as the 
air thickened with moisture was regarded as a sign of 
approaching rain. On the whole, however, I think our 
modern Weather Probabilities more trustworthy than this 
and similar prognostics. 

Next month, Hydra (the Sea-serpent) will have come 
fairly above the southern horizon, and will deservedly claim 
our attention. 

In the east (p. 82) the constellation of the Lion has passed 
much higher than last month, and is making room for Virgo 
(the Virgin). It will be observed that although in the eastern 
map nearly the whole of Virgo is shown, yet in the latitude 
of London only half of this constellation can be seen at the 
hours named under the map. Nor can much more be seen 
in any of the latitudes for which these maps are constructed. 
For if you take any of the horizon lines from that for New 
Orleans to that for London, you will find that a large part 
of the constellation lies below the horizon line so taken. 

In fact it so chances that in the eastern skies for this 
month, at the hours named, there is no large constellation 
which either has not been already described or will not be 

* This description is truer for European than for American nights, 
for the pleasant nights of spring come later in America than with us. 



THE STARS FOR MARCH. 71 

more suitably described hereafter. Next month Virgo will 
be fully above all the horizons of our maps. Bootes, 
which is now passing into view in the east, not from above 
the eastern horizon you will observe, but from the north-east 
ascending on a slant, will be best placed for observation in 
the east two months from now. The Great Bear, half of 
which can be seen high up on the northern side of our 
eastern map, does not in reality belong to the eastern or 
western sky views at all. 

Thus the only eastern constellations which really require 
description this month are the small ones, Canes Venatici 
(the Hunting Dogs); Coma Berenices (the Hair of Queen 
Berenice) ; and Leo Minor (the Lesser Lion). 

The Lesser Lion is one of Hevelius's absurd constella- 
tions. It occupies a space between the Great Bear and 
the Lion which might have quite readily been divided 
between these constellations. I believe the small stars 
forming this constellation originally marked the mane of 
the Lion. 

The constellation Coma Berenices, originally the tail of 
the Lion, is interesting to astronomers, because it must be 
regarded as a group of stars really forming a system. It is 
quite incredible that if the stars in space were really scattered 
independently of all relation to each other, such groups as 
the Pleiads or Coma Berenices would be formed by the 
apparent concourse of stars really lying at very different 
distances but seen accidentally (so to speak) in the same 
direction. Although Coma (as this constellation is now 
conveniently named by astronomers) is not nearly so 
closely set a group as the Pleiads, the reasoning which 
obliges astronomers to regard the Pleiads as a real cluster 
of stars, can be applied with equal force to Coma Berenices. 
It is simply a more diffuse cluster. The story of the 
constellation is interesting, but apocryphal. It runs that 
Berenice vowed to offer her hair to Venus if her husband, 
Ptolemy Euergetes, should be victorious over his enemies. 
On his return in triumph, he was pained to find her closely 



1*2. THE STARS FOR MARCH. 

shorn; and to comfort him they sent for the priests and 
astronomers, who found somehow that the queen's hair 
had been placed among the stars. Modern astronomers are 
not equal to feats of this kind. 

There is very little to be said about Canes Venatici, or 
" the Hunting Dogs." The constellation was invented by 
Hevelius, according to his usual fashion of filling in spaces 
with new figures. It could have very readily been dis- 
pensed with. In this constellation lies the marvellous 
Whirlpool Nebula, which Whewell has (worthily) chosen as 
the subject for the frontispiece of his book on the plurality 
of worlds. 

Turning to the west (p. 83), we find that Auriga (the 
Charioteer), which in January was on the eastern side of the 
point overhead, and last month was overhead, is now on the 
western side of that point. Gemini (the Twins) have come 




Fig. 15. — Cepheus. 

over from the south-east, where they were in January, to the 
south-west. It will be seen that our western maps will 
hereafter need very little description, since nearly all 
the stars which are seen at any time towards the west, 
were towards the east a few months earlier. The western 
maps, however, are very necessary. For though there 



THE STARS FOR MARCH. 73 

is nothing new to be said (for instance) this month 
about the constellation Auriga, yet the aspect of this con- 
stellation when on the western side of the point overhead, is 
altogether different from that which it presented when on 
the eastern side of that point. So again, the eastern and 
western maDS for different hours are necessary, because, owing 
to the slant motion of the stars across the eastern and western 
skies, the star groups change markedly in aspect from hour 
to hour. 

I shall reserve to the month after next, the description of 
Orion's approach towards his 

"... grave, low down in the west" 



STAR MAPS FOR MARCH. 



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THE NORTHERN MAP FOR MARCH. 



79 




THE SOUTHERN MAP FOR MARCH. 



82 




THE EASTERN MAP FOR MARCH. 



«3 




THE WESTERN MAP FOR MARCH. 



THE STARS FOR APRIL. 



In the northern heavens (p. 98) we now see the Little Bear 
passing above the horizontal position which he had not 
quite reached last month. The Great Bear is now overhead, 
but inverted. The triplets of stars, yjs, fx, X and 6, t, k 
represent his paws, and I fear there is nothing better for his 
head than the small group v, 6, and 23. The dreary 
constellation Lynx occupies the position shown It was not 
one of the ancient constellations, but was invented by 
Hevelius, just as Camelopardalis (the Giraffe) was invented, 
to fill up a waste space in the star-charts. King Cepheus is 
now immediately below the pole, but still in unkingly 
attitude. The stars y and < represent his feet, flourishing 
wildly upward ; {, f, and S, as I mentioned last month, re- 
present his head ; and t marks the place of his left hand, in 
which he bears a regal sceptre. Admiral Smyth, in whose 
" Bedford Cycle" there is much curious information about 
the constellations, gives the following doggrel account of 
the true position of Cepheus, according to Aratus and 
Ptolemy : 

" Near to his wife and daughter sec, 

Aloft where Cepheus shines, 
That wife, the Little Bear, and Swan, 

With Draco, bound his lines ; 
Beneath the Pole-star twelve degrees 

Two stars your eye will meet, — 
Gamma, the nomad shepherds' gem, 

And Kappa mark his feet. 



86 THE STARS FOR APRIL, 

Alphirk Q3), the Hindu's Kalpeny, 

Points out the monarch's waist ; 
While Alderamin (a), beaming bright, 

Is on the shoulder placed ; 
And where, o'er regions rich and vast, 

The Milky Way is led, 
Three stars, of magnitude the fourth, 

Adorn the ^Ethiop's head." 

The story of Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia, their 
daughter Andromeda, and Perseus, the gallant knight who 
rescued her from the sea monster (Cetus), does not belong 
to astronomy. But if it did, I should not venture to tell it 
here ; for has it not been told already in Kingsley's charming 
poem " Andromeda ?" How Perseus found means to gor- 
gonize the sea monster with a petrifying stare is even more 
charmingly told in the "Tanglewood Tales," by the 
American prose-poet, Hawthorne. 

Cassiopeia is following Cepheus, a little to the left, or west, 
of the north. You can always find Cassiopeia by noticing 
that it is almost exactly opposite the Plough, regarding 
the pole as a centre. Thus 8 of the Great Bear, and a of 
Cassiopeia, are at the two ends, and the pole at the middle 
of a mighty arc on the heavens. Cassiopeia passes under 
the Pole-star in the same undignified position as her 
husband's. For you are not to suppose, as many (I find) 
do, that f, 6", and y form the back of Cassiopeia's chair, y 
and k the seat thereof, and ( and j3 the ends of the chair's 
legs. These last are at t and \^, while C an d mark the 
place of the top rail. Still, in its present position, the 
group forms a very fair picture of a rocking-chair, 6, a, f 
and 4 forming the rockers. Next month I shall speak more 
particularly about this constellation. 

The portion of the Milky Way now under the pole is very 
irregular. In the- constellation Cygnus you will see a great 
opening in the Milky Way. This opening is sometimes 
called the Northern Coalsack, though it is not nearly as 
black as the opening in the southern Milky Way near the 
Cross, which is the real Coalsack. 



THE STARS FOR APRIL. 



87 



The region in which the Northern Coalsack lies is shown 
in the map of the northern sky. Bat a special map is added 
in Fig. 1 6, for another purpose. In 1876 a new star 
appeared in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan). On the 
evening of the 24th of November, Professor Schmidt, 
director of the Athens Observatory, noticed a star of the third 
magnitude at the place shown by the skeleton star in Fig. 16. 
Not only was no star of that brightness there before, or 
any star visible to the naked eye, but it was found when 




Fig. 16. — Part of Cygnus, showing where the new star ot 
November, 1876, appeared. 



catalogues and charts came to be examined, that no star 
had ever been noted there, even in lists meant to include all 
stars down to the tenth magnitude. For instance, Argelander 



88 THE STARS FOR APRIL. 

has made such a list, and charts from it, showing no less 
than 324,000 stars, — that is, a hundred times as many as 
we can see on the darkest and clearest night ; yet his list 
showed no star where the new one had appeared. Astro- 
nomers did not, however, infer that the new star is really 
new, except in the sense of being seen for the first time. 
They knew that when last a new star appeared in this way 
it was found to be one of Argelander's army of 324,000 
stars, and watching that star (which had appeared in the 
constellation of the Northern Crown in May, 1866), they 
found that though it faded gradually out of sight to ordinary 
vision, the telescope could still follow it, until it had sunk to 
the tenth magnitude, at which degree of lustre it remained 
and still remains. Possibly if we had had full lists of all 
stars down to the fifteenth, or perhaps the twentieth, magni- 
tude, we should have found that the new star in Cygnus 
was simply an old faint star which had brightened up 
suddenly, and remained for a time as one among the stars 
adorning our skies. 

Examined with an instrument called the spectroscope the 
new star gave a very strange account of itself. It was found 
to be emitting the same sort of light as other stars ; but 
besides that light, it emitted such light as comes from 
intensely heated vapours. Among the vapours in that star 
thus (for the time) intensely hot, were hydrogen, the vapours 
of the metals sodium and magnesium, and a vapour known 
to be present in enormous quantities in our sun's outer 
atmosphere, as seen during times of total eclipse. All these 
vapours surround our sun ; and it is very probable that if 
anything caused our sun to blaze out with greatly increased 
light and heat, people living on a world circling round some 
other sun would find the same peculiarities in our sun's light 
as we have found in the light of the new star in the Swan. 
What caused that star to blaze out in that strange way we 
do not know. We should like to know, because we might then 
determine whether the cause which had so disturbed that 
sun might not be one from which our own sun may one day 



THE STARS FOR APRIL. 89 

suffer. Whatever the cause was, its effects did not last very 
long. In a week the new star had sunk to the fi.'th magnitude, 
in another week to the sixth, in yet another to the seventh, 
since which time (December 15th) it has very slowly 
diminished, but on January 5th was still above the eighth 
magnitude. But later its light changed in character, in such 
a way as to show that the object was dying out into a mere 
mass of luminous mist, a nebula of the gaseous kind. 

In the southern sky (p. 99), we find the great Sea Ser- 
pent, Hydra, occupying the leading position. This is the 
longest, and nearly the largest, of all the constellations. It 
is partly shown in our southern map for last month, and 
we shall not quite see the end of it for three months yet to 
come ; so that it shows itself in no less than five of the 
southern maps. This is another constellation which has 
changed in position owing to the mighty reeling motion of 
our euth. When the constellation was first formed, the 
Sea Serpent extended along the equator ; and I think ori- 
ginally represented the great serpent which was supposed 
to gird round the ocean. I have sometimes thought that 
when this constellation was framed (and Cetus, too), there 
may still have remained some few of those long-necked 
paddling sea-monsters whose skeletons are found from time 
to time in various parts of the earth. Mr. Gosse, in a 
sketch called the "Great Unknown," maintains that there 
are still a few of these monsters left, who being seen from time 
time to with their long necks reared above the sea, have 
been regarded as sea-serpents. And even though this 
may be unlikely or impossible, as Professor Owen seems to 
think, one may well believe that such monsters were either 
known or remembered, three or four thousand years ago. 

The bright star Cor Hydrae or " the Serpent's Heart," is 
also called Alphard, or " the Solitary One." The head of 
the Sea Serpent is marked by the stars {, e, and 8, which 
may be remembered conveniently, though absurdly, by the 
aid to the memory which I mentioned in the case of 
Gepheus's head last month. 

B 



90 THE STARS FOR APRIL. 

The constellation Crater, or " the Cup," is a very neat one, 
and really like a rather damaged claret-cup. It is now 
tilted on one side, but formerly came to the south upright, 
as a well-filled cup should be. It has been regarded as the 
original goblet out of which Noah first took his wine, 
though since put to this higher use. 

The ruling ecliptic constellation this month is the Lion 
(Fig. 17V You will know it at once by the magnificent 




*'g- l 7- — The constellation of the Lion. 

sickle, formed of the stars a (Regulus or Cor Leonis, the 
Lion's Heart), tj, y , (, /z, f , and x- This group is some- 
times conveniently called the Sickle in Leo. It is an inter- 
esting region of the sky for many reasons, but especially for 
this, that the wonderful shower of falling stars known as the 
November meteors, radiates always from this part of the 
heavens. The constellation of the Lion has been greatly 
reduced from its former noble dimensions. The figure 
shows how it is now presented in our charts ; but if you 
look at the heavens, you will see nothing in the least degree 
resembling a lion. Still, if you allow your survey to range 
over a much larger space, you will see a very fine lion, his 
head lying on Cancer, his mane reaching to Leo Minor, 



THE STARS FOR APRIL. 91 

his fore-paws on the Sea Serpent's head, his hinder paws on 
the two bright stars, shown in the figure (behind his hind- 
paws), which really belong to the Virgin, and his tail well 
represented by the constellation Coma Berenices, or Queen 
Berenice's Hair (shown in the figure, but not in the southern 
map). That this was formerly the real extent of the con- 
stellation, is shown by the fact that the star-cluster forming 
the chignon of Berenices is still called by Arabians the 
Lion's Tail; and there are vague traditions showing that 
Leo formerly extended to the constellation Gemini'. 

The Lesser Lion is one of Hevelius's absurd constellations. 
It occupies a space between the Great Bear and the Lion, 
which might have been divided quite readily between these 
two constellations. Sextans is another idle addition to the 
constellation figures. It is so called, apparently not be- 
cause there are any stars, even small ones, forming a shape 
like a sextant, but because over a space not unlike a sextant 
there are none but very small stars. 

Antlia, short for Antlia Pneumatica (the Air-pump), 
occupies another desert region. It was invented by 
Lacaille. 

In the east (p. 102), the principal constellation is Bootes, the 
Herdsman. But though the stars of this constellation are 
now conveniently situated for observation, the constellation 
itself is not well placed. Bootes is figured as a man with 
uplifted arms ; but, as at present situated, his figure is re- 
cumbent. In modern maps, one hand bears a club, the 
other holds the leash of the Hunting Dogs. Originally, how- 
ever, the hands were probably empty. Certainly the right 
hand held no leash, for the constellation of the Hunting Dogs 
is a modern one. The description of Bootes may be con- 
veniently deferred till August or September, when we shall 
have the Herdsman upright in the west. 

The stars of the Serpent, shown underneath Bootes, form 
only one part of this constellation, which is divided into two 
separate portions on either side of Ophiuchus, or, as he is 
sometimes called, Serpentarius (the Serpent-Bearer). 

E 2 



9? THE STARS FOR APRIL. 

It will be observed that the Greater Bear is passing up 
towards the point overhead, the stars of his impossible tail 
(the stars marked e, £ and r] in the map) travelling almost 
directly upwards. The " point overhead," or zenith, is now 
ir this constellation at the times for which the maps are 
drawn, as will be seen by comparing the eastern and western 
maps for the pvenf.nt moittl,. 

In the west (p. 103), Taurus (the Bull) is passing away to- 
wards the right ; Gemini, followed by Canis Minor (the Lesser 
Dog), is approaching the mid-west, or the prime vertical, as 
the great circle is called which is represented by the central 
vertical line in the maps, both eastern and western. 

Orion is passing towards his setting-place in the west. 
Next month, at the hours for our maps, Orion will have 
almost wholly set, so that now is the proper time to describe 
this noble constellation, — at least, the proper time when a 
western view of Orion is to be considered. He really 
presents his noblest appearance when towards the south, 
where he was at the hours named in the maps for January 
and February.* But, as I have already mentioned, the 
student of the stars should know the constellations in all 
their principal aspects. 

An hour or so later than the hours named under the 
maps, the aspect of the western skies will be that described 
by Tennyson in the beautiful lines quoted on p. 70. 

It should, however, be noticed that Tennyson fails, as 
poets are apt to do, to indicate with precision the time either 
of the year or of the night which these astronomical relations 
are supposed to determine. The aspect described is 
presented at about ten in the evening on April 5th ; but it 
is also presented at about nine on April 20th, at about eight 
on May 5th, and so on ; as also at about eleven on March 

* These vague expressions, as here, and when a few lines before I 
spoke of Bootes, are correct, because a constellation lies towards a 
given cardinal point at a given time for several weeks in succession. 
Of course, it would not be correct to say Orion lies due south at the 
times named above, still less to say that any given star so lies. 



THE STARS FOR APRIL. 93 

2 1 st, at about midnight on March 6th, at about one in the 
morning on February i6th, and so forth. 

For a description of Orion, the most beautiful constella- 
tion in the heavens, see p. 47. 

The constellation Gemini, or the Twins, is now ap- 
proaching the west, and occupies a different position from 
that which it had in our first map, when it was in the east 
though in both cases its distance from the horizon was 
about the same. When in the west the Twins were supine, 
now they are nearly in the attitude in which they are com- 
monly represented in pictures of the constellation, — that is. 
in a half-reclining, half-sitting position. For a description 
of the constellation, the reader is referred to p. 29. 

Auriga (the Charioteer) is perhaps as well placed for 
observation at this season as at any other throughout the 
year ; but, to say the truth, the figure of the charioteer is 
never properly placed in our latitudes. The constellation 
passes overhead. When due north under the pole it is half 
concealed ; when east or west at a convenient height for 
observation the charioteer is either falling backwards or is 
tumbling forwards. We must visit far higher latitudes than 
ours to see this constellation in the position in which it is 
figured in the books — that is, as a seated charioteer. He 
could be thus seen, when due south, at any station near 
enough to the north pole to throw Auriga considerably below 
the point overhead when he is crossing the meridian. At 
the time when the constellations were originally formed, the 
pole of the heavens was far removed from the present Pole- 
star, and Auriga was much farther from the Pole-star of that 
time. He was also differently posed, so to speak, and could 
be seen in the natural attitude of a charioteer when at a 
convenient distance above the horizon. I shall give here- 
after a figure of this constellation. It is one of the forty- 
eight constellations of Ptolemy. The kids, or two stars e and tj, 
were for some reason regarded as stars of very evil portent, 
horrida et insana sidera — horrid mad stars. It was supposed 
that at their rising storms were certain to occur, nor does 



94 THE STARS FOR APRIL. 

their approach to the western horizon seem to have been 
thought much more favourable. " Tempt not the winds," 
said Callimachus — 

"Forewarned of dangers nigh, 
When the Kids glitter in the western sky." 

Capella, the chief brilliant of this constellation, is one of the 
brightest stars in the northern heavens. According to some 
astronomers this star shares with Arcturus and Vega the claim 
to be regarded as actually the brightest, though there can 
be no doubt that Arcturus surpasses both Capella and Vega 
in lustre. 



STAR MAPS FOR APRIL 



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THE NORTHERN MAP FOR APRIL. 



99 



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•* Star of/" May ">\ v 



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THE SOUTHERN MAP FOR APRIL. 




THE EASTERN MAP FOR APRIL. 



io3 




THE WESTERN MAP FOR APRIL. 



THE STARS FOR MAY. 



Toward the north (p. 1 1 6), we now see the Plough, or Dipper 
raised directly above the Pole-star ; the constellation of the 
Great Bear occupying a much wider region of the sky. The 
Little Bear, which last month had passed just above the 
horizontal position, has its length now in the position of the 
minute hand of a clock eight or nine minutes past the hour. 
Since I wrote the account of the stars for April. I have 
come across a singular Arabian picture of a part of the 
northern heavens, from which it would seem that anciently 
the two Bears had their feet in the same direction. From 
the picture of the Little Bear, shown in Fig. 13, you will 
see that the feet of the animal are toward the stars tj and y, 
or away from the Great Bear ; and the feet of the Great 
Bear are toward /z, X, etc., of that constellation, or away 
from the Little Bear. So thit the Bears are back to back ; 




Fig. 18. — Ancient view of Ursa Minor. 

and whenever one is placed, as in Nature, with his planti- 
grade feet lowermost, the other has his legs wildly waving 
above him, — which, on the whole, seems absurd. Now, in 



lob 



THE STARS FOR MAY. 



the old Arabian picture, drawn in the eleventh century, we 
find the Little Bear turned the other way. His tail still lies 
toward the Pole-star, but his feet lie toward the Great Bear, 
— the fore-feet at the stars 4 and 5 ; so that the Bears come 
into their natural attitude simultaneously. The accompany- 
ing picture (Fig. 18) is copied from the very rough drawing of 
the Arabian astronomers, except that the stars are represented 
a little more clearly than in their drawing. Only six stars are 




Fig. 19. -Cassiopeia. 

shown. The bear is not a very good-looking one, still he is 
more like a bear than the long-tailed creature in the account 
of the stars for March. To say the truth, astronomy cannot be 
said to distinguish itself pictorially, though serious confusion 
would follow a sudden changing of its familiar representations. 



THE STARS FOR MA V. 107 

The constellation Cassiopeia (Fig. 19) is well placed in 
May for observation, — and I therefore give here a brief 
account of this ancient star-group. 

According to Hyginus, Cassiopeia and Cepheus were 
placed in thj heavens with their heads turned from the pole, 
so as to swing head downward beneath it, because Cassiopeia 
boasted that her beauty surpassed that of the Nereids. It 
is convenient to keep this in mind, not because her error of 
judgment (she hau not even seen the Nereids) was of much 
importance, but as a help to the memory. The star £, the 
remotest from the pole of all shown in our northern map as 
belonging to Cassiopeia, marks her head ; and her queenly 
robes flow toward 1 and 50, though in most pictures of 
Cassiopeia a raised dais is placed where these stars are. 
The figure shows the position of the lady with respect to the 




Fig. 20. — Two views of Cassiopeia's Chair. 

stars. You will see that, in order to make it agree with the 
constellation as now seen, the picture must be inverted. 
Flammarion, in his book on the heavens, strangely mistakes 
the position of the chair. I quote from Mr. Blake's work 
based on Flammarion's, and for the most part a translation ; 
but possibly the error is Mr. Blake's. He says " the chair 
is composed principally of five stars, of the third magnitude, 
arranged in the form of an M. A smaller star, of the fourth 
magnitude (k), completes the square formed by the three, /3, 
a, and y. The figure thus formed has a fair resemblance to 
a chair or throne, 5 and e forming the back ; and hence the 
justification for its popular name." But, apart from the 



io8 THE S'lARS FOR MA Y. 

agreement of all the old authorities as to the position of the 
chair, there can be no doubt that the six leading stars of 
the constellation show a much closer resemblance to a chair, 
having /3 and a for the back, or like the first picture in 
Fig. 20 ; that, too, is the shape of ancient chairs. People 
who lived in the years B.C. did not loll ; like Mrs. Wilfer in 
more recent times, they were " incapable of it" Now the 
group of stars placed as in the second drawing of Fig. 20 
forms an unmistakably easy chair. 

It is useful to remember the letters corresponding to the 
brighter stars, and any aid to the memory, however absurd 
in itself, is worth noticing if it helps to recall the arrange- 
ment of the letters. It will be observed that the five leading 
stars of Cassiopeia have the first five letters of the Greek 
alphabet. To remember their order, notice that, beginning 
with the top rail of the chair, they follow thus, /3, a, y, 8, 
and f, making the word " bagde," or, in sound, " bagged/' 
I have myself found this aid to the memory so often useful, 
that I do not hesitate to mention it, like those others relating 
to the heads of Cepheus and Hydra. (I add, in passing, 
that the head of Cassiopeia, like that of Cepheus, has a star 
C in it.) It is not with the least idea of raising a laugh about 
these absurd combinations that I mention them ; though I 
can see no reason on earth why science should be studied 
always with a serious face. But these little helps to the 
memory, or others like them which the student can make for 
himself, are often very useful. 

For instance, I proceed to note that the two stars y and « 
of Cassiopeia point toward a most wonderful and beautiful 
cluster of stars, lying about twice as tar irom 8 as 6 does 
from y. If you remember the names of the five leading stars, 
this direction at once shows you where to look tor the cluster, 
without referring anew to any map. Of course, the northern 
map belonging to this paper also shows you how to find the 
cluster, which is marked in its proper place. But it is well 
to remember the way in which 5 and y point to it. In the 
sky, the cluster can only just be seen on clear nights as a 



THE STARS FOR MA Y. 109 

small round mist If, however, you turn a small telescope, 
or even a good opera -glass, upon it, you will see that it is 
sparkling all over with stars. In a powerful telescope, it is 
one of the most wonderful objects you can imagine. You 
see at a single view, in that little spot of misty light, more 
stars — that is to say, more suns — than the unaided eye can 
see in the whole sky on the darkest and clearest night ! 

The constellation Perseus, or the Rescuer of Andromeda, 
is now approaching the region below the pole, and in 
England is fairly well seen when thus placed. But in the 
greater part of the United States, the southern half of the 
constellation passes below the horizon as it approaches the 
northern sky. It will be well, therefore, for American 
students to look for Perseus half an hour, or even an hour, 
earlier than the times mentioned in the northern Chart, 
noticing that the stars y and 8 — of Cassiopeia — or, better, 
the stars k and 8 — point toward Perseus. It is impossible to 
mistake the beautiful festoon of stars, rj, y, a, 8, /*, and A, with 
other smaller stars shown in the northern map, which form 
the northern half of the constellation Perseus. In the section 
for June I shall give a brief account of the constellation, 
and especially of the star Algol, one of the most remark- 
able variable stars in the whole heavens. 

For the present, however, we must turn toward the 
southern heavens, p. 117. 

The zodiacal constellation for the month is Virgo, or the 
Virgin (Fig. 21). The maiden is usually represented as an 
angel, her head between the stars o and v. and r marking the 
upper part of the wing, while the other wing has its tip near 
e. She has in her hand an ear of corn, whose place is marked 
by the bright star, Spica, so that the young lady's feet lie on 
a part of the constellation beyond the range of the map. 
It is easy to recognize the constellation by the bright star 
Spica, and the corner formed by the five third magnitude 
stars, e, 5, y, 17, and (3. For some cause or other,— a 
celestial reason, no doubt, since no earthly reason can be 
imagined; — this corner was called by Arabian astronomers 






no 



7 HE STARS FOR MAY. 



"the retreat of the howling dog." The order of these star 
letters is nearly identical with that of the five stars of the 
same magnitude in Cassiopeia — Begde instead of Bagde. 
According to the ancients, Virgo represented Ceres, or Isis, 




Fig. 2! 



.— V 



"go. 



or Erigone, or the Singing Sibyl, " or some one else," as 
Admiral Smyth conveniently adds ; some of the moderns 
have recognized in her the Virgin Mary. Most probably 
she was at first intended to represent a gleaner in the field, 



'I HE STARS FOR MA Y. in 

Virgo having originally been the constellation through which 
the sun passed in August, and Spica very near the place of 
the sun at gleaning time in the warmer parts of the tem- 
perate zone. 

Above the Virgin is the pretty star-group called Coma 
Berenices, (often incorrectly called Coma Berenicis), or 
the Tresses of Queen Berenice. (See Fig. 17.) 

Hydra's length still trails onward athwart the southern 
sky. The constellations Corvus (the Crow) and Crater (the 
Cup) are now well seen. A cup is rather strangely placed 
on a snake's back ; yet you are not to suppose the cup 
belongs to the Virgin. The Crow is usually drawn as 
perched on the Snake, and pecking his back, the bird's head 
being where the stars e and a are shown. But it has always 
seemed to me that the little group reminds one more of a 
crow resting, with his head, as at j/, depressed between the 
raised shoulders, whose top would be marked by the stars S 
and y. This bird has been claimed for Noah's raven. 

The Centaur, or Man-horse, is moving toward the south ; 
but will be better placed next month, when I will describe 
it. The Southern Cross shows about two-thirds of its 
height above the horizon of New Orleans, but its leading 
brilliant, the foot of the cross, cannot be seen from anv part 
of the United States, nor any star of the Cross from the 
Northern States. 

The parts of the heavens now in view toward the south, 
especially the Locks of Berenice and head and wings of 
Virgo, are very interesting regions for telescopic study, being 
crowded with little clouds of light called nebulae, some of 
which are clustering collections of small stars, others formed 
of some kind of shining gas. We owe the discovery of most of 
these to the two Herschels, Sir William and Sir John, father 
and son, each the greatest astronomer of his day and 
generation 

The sun's path through Virgo carries him, as you see by 
the maps, descendingly across the equator. When he is at 
the place marked £»=, the sign for Libra, or *' the Balance," 
the days and nights are equal. This is at the time called 



ill THE STARS FOR MAY. 

the autumnal equinox. The zodiacal constellations now to 
follow are those below, or south of the celestial equator. 

In the east (p. 1 20), the constellation Bootes,or "the Herds- 
man," has passed high above its position last month, which is 
now occupied by the constellation Hercules, or "the Kneeler." 
Hercules is not now in the proper attitude of a kneeling 
person. For the star a marks the place of his head, so that 
his feet are flourishing upwards. In fact Hercules never is 
seen in our latitudes as a kneeling man. When he is at a 
convenient height for observation in the west, he is supine, 
while now in the east he is nearly prone, as one who has 
fallen almost headlong, and face downwards, from a height. 
Due east, and just above the horizon, is Ophiuchus (the 
Serpent-holder), supposed by some fanciful persons to have 
been typical of the Messiah. Although the part of the 
serpent shown on the white ground below is not visible in 
the northern latitudes, for which the maps are made, and 
even the stars v and o are not visible in London, it will be 
well for the student to notice that the other part of the 
Serpent, now conspicuous at a fair elevation between the 
east and east-north-east, does not form the whole of that 
constellation, which is perplexingly intertwined with the 
Serpent-holder. 

Very little need be said about the western map (p. 121), as 
all the constellations which appear in it have already been 
described. The student will observe, however, how well 
situated the constellation Gemini is for observation at the 
times named under the maps. The twin stars, Castor and 
Pollux, are nearly at the same level, and the figures of the 
Twins may now be conceived &s nearly upright. 



STAR MAPS FOR MAY 



16 




TKE NORTHERN MAP FOR MAY. 



M7 




THE SOUTHERN MAP FOR MAY. 



no 




TWR F.ASTERX MAP FOR MAY. 




THE WESTERN MAP FOR MAY. 



THE STARS FOR JUNE. 



This month, it will be well for the student to use the maps 
given for next month, because the evenings are now getting 
long, and the stars must be looked for later. Thus, the 
northern or southern map for this month shows the stars as 
they are seen on June 21st at eight ; but at that hour it is 
not dark enough to see the stars. Now, the northern and 
southern maps for next month show the stars as they are 
seen on June 21st at ten o'clock. In July and August, also, 
it will be well to use maps of the stars at later hours than 
eight or nine. 

In the northern map (p. 134) we find the Guardians nearly 
above the pole. The Plough, or Dipper, has passed to the left, 
or west, of due north. The last star of the Great Bear's tail 
is nearly overhead. Cassiopeia has passed below the pole 
toward the east, and the five bright stars of the constellation 
now make a straggling W close to the horizon, and very 
nearly upright. The festoon of stars belonging to the con- 
stellation Perseus is just visible above the latitude of Phila- 
delphia, but better seen above the latitude of Boston. As 
far south as Louisville, the festoon at the hours named under 
the map is broken by the horizon ; but half an hour earlier 
can be well seen. In London, as shown by the map, we 
can see at these hours nearly the whole of Perseus ; and 
also a large part of Andromeda, — a constellation which 
cannot be well seen within the range of our northern maps 
from any part of the United States. 

The constellation Perseus is one of the oldest. It belongs, 

f 2 



114 THE STARS FOR JUAE. 

with Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and Cetus (the Sea 
Monster), to a set which has been called the Cassicoeian group, 
— illustrating the story of the pride of Cassiopeia. I have 
already referred to the story itself, as not belonging to our 
subject here. But how the story found its way into the heavens 
is one of the most mysterious questions in the history of astro- 
nomy ; and if the answer could be found, we should have made 
an important step toward determining what nation first studied 
the stars. A curious story is told by Wilford, in his Asiatic 
researches, about these constellations. Asking an Indian 
astronomer, he says, " to show me in the heavens the con 
stellation Antarmada," he immediately pointed to Andromeda, 
though I had not given him any information about it before- 
hand. He afterwards brought me a very rare and curious 
work in Sanscrit, which contained a chapter devoted to 
" Upanachatras" or constellations not in the zodiac, " with 
drawings of Capuja (Cepheus) and of Casyapi (Cassiopeia) 
seated and holding a lotus-flower in her hand, of Antarmada 
chained, with the fish beside her, and last, of Parasiea 
(Perseus), who, according to the explanation of the book, 
held the head of a monster which he had slain in combat ; 
blood was dropping from it, and for hair it had snakes." 
But whether the Indians borrowed from the Greeks, or the 
Greeks from the Indians, or both from some other source, 
we do not know. 

Perseus is represented as in Fig. 22. Why, instead of a 
sword, the Rescuer should carry a weapon which looks 
like a reaping-hook, this deponent sayeth not, — not knowing. 
Admiral Smyth remarks, that in an ancient MS. of the 
astronomical poet Aratus in the British Museum, with 
drawings made, it is supposed, in the reign of Constantine, 
Perseus is represented with no other drapery than a light 
scarf, holding the head of Medusa in his left hand and a 
singular hooked and pointed weapon in the right In the 
Middle Ages, an earnest effort was made to dismiss Perseus 
and Medusa's head in favour of David with the head of 
Goliath, but the attempt failed. 



THE STARS FOR JUNE. 125 

The cluster on the sword hand of Perseus (see the 
northern map, also) can be seen easily with the naked eye. 
This cluster should be examined with a small telescope, by 
all who possess, or can beg or borrow one. Nothing more 
wonderful exists in the heavens than this splendid cluster. 
In the middle there is a beautiful coronet of small stars. 

Although Algol, in the head of Medusa, cannot be seen in 
America where shown, — the horizon of Boston passing high 
above it, — yet as its place will soon be learned when once the 
festoon of stars in Perseus (/*, 5, a, y, and 77) is known, I 
may take this opportunity of describing this remarkable star. 
It shines most of the time as a star of the third magnitude. 
During two days, fourteen hours, it retains this brightness ; 
then, in the course of three hours and a quarter, it is 
reduced to the fourth magnitude. It remains thus faint for 
about a quarter of an hour, and then in the course of three 
hours and a quarter it gradually recovers its usual lustre. 
This regular change is accounted for by some astronomers 
'by supposing the body of the star to rotate on an axis, 
having part of its surface not luminous." It is singular that 
Sir W. Herschel and others who have given this explanation 
should not have noticed how it fails when put to the test. 
The star loses half its brightness for about a quarter ot an 
hour, out of sixty-nine hours, and remains in all only six 
hours and three-quarters below its full brightness. Now, if 
one side or part of a sun were less bright than the rest, to 
such a degree that, when that side was looked at, the sun 
shone with only half the lustre of its other side, then the 
sun would be certainly quite half the time below its full 
brightness, and probably longer. Try the experiment with an 
orange. Peel off so much of one side that when you look 
at that side about half is peeled and the other half unpeeled, 
and suppose the unpeeled part of the orange made intensely 
bright and and the peeled part dark. Now, let the orange 
spin steadily on an axis, either thrusting a stick through it, 
or hanging by a thread. You will find the peeled part 
remains wholly in view for (roughly) about a third part of 



126 THE STARS FOR JUNE. 

an entire turning, and partly in view nearly twice as long. 
This is very unlike what is observed in the case of Algol, 
whose dark part, on the theory we are considering, would 
remain wholly in view only about a three-hundredth part of 
an entire turning, and more or less in view only about a 
tenth part. This could never happen. The only possible 
explanation seems to be this, — that there is a great dark orb, 
like our earth, only very much larger, travelling round that 
distant sun, once in about sixty-nine hours, and coming 
between that sun and us once in each circuit. It must 
be large enough to cut off about half that sun's light, and 




Fig. 22.— Perseus the Rescuer. 

must travel at such a rate that the partial eclipses which it 
causes last nearly seven hours at a time from beginning 
to end. 

The discovery that Algol changes in brightness in this 
strange way is commonly supposed to belong to late limes , 
but I think the name of the star shows that the astronomers 
of old new all about this star's changes of lustre. You see 
from Fig. 22 how the star adorns the head of the Gorgon 
Medusa, borne by Perseus, which was supposed to possess 
the power of turning to stone every living creature thai 



THE STARS FOR JUNE. T27 

looked upon it. The Arabian name Algol is the same as 
Al-ghitl, the monster or demon. And to this star most evil 
influences were attributed by astrologers. All this seems to 
show that the old astronomers had found out how ominously 
the star looks upon our system, slowly winking upon us 
from out the depths of space. 

Turning to the southern skies (p. 135) we find Virgo (the 
Virgin) now the ruling zodiacal constellation. Last month, she 
shared the honour with Leo (the Lion). Both these con- 
stellations are larger than others of the twelve which form 
the zodiac — the two together, instead of covering about 
sixty degrees of the sun's path (one-sixth of his circuit), 
covering fully eighty degrees, or between a fourth part and 
a fifth part. The next two — the Scales and the Scorpion- 
together, scarcely cover forty degrees, instead of covering 
about thirty degrees, or a twelfth part of the zodiac, a-piece. 
Nothing need be added to what I said last month about 
Virgo, and her bright star Spica. Libra (the Scales) I shall 
speak about presently. 

The fine constellation Bootes (the Herdsman) is seen above 
Virgo. He is too high, however, for his figure to be readily 
recognized. At New Orleans, indeed, and other places 
far south, about as much of his frame is on the northern as 
on the southern side of the point overhead. The bright 
star Arcturus is a very noted one. According to the 
measurement of its light by Sir J. Herschel, it is the 
brightest star north of the celestial equator, though to the 
unaided eye, Vega, in "the Lyre," and Capella, in "the 
Charioteer," seem equally conspicuous. The heat which 
reaches us from this star has been measured, and is found 
to be equal to about as much heat as would be received 
from a three-inch cube, full of boiling water, at a distance 
of 383 yards ! 

Low down toward the south you see the stars of the 
Centaur and Lupus (the Wolf). But it is only from the 
latitude of New Orleans that the bright stars marking the 
fore-feet of this constellation can be seen. The stars of the 



128 THE STARS FOR JUNE. 

Cross marked in former times the hind feet. You can 
easily see how the figure was imagined— the stars 6 and i 
marking the shoulders, and i, 2, 3, and 4, the head, of the 
human part of the Centaur; while the back of the horse 
extended from ( to y, 0-, and 8. He was represented as 
bearing the body of the wolf upon a spear, apparently by 
way of offering it as a suitable sacrifice upon the altar, Ara — 
a constellation which a little later comes into vi e\v in the 
southern sky in places as far south as New Orleans. 

In the east (p. 138) the constellation Bootes, which at the 
same hours a month earlier had been high above the eastern 
horizon, has passed almost to the region overhead, the most 
conspicuous part of the constellation lying towards the south. 
Hercules has passed into the position occupied last month by 
Bootes. This constellation is still prone, as one who has 
fallen headlong and face downward from a height. Ophiuchus 
has passed away from the east, and in his place, but low 
down, is Aquila, the Eagle. The small but beautiful 
constellation Lyra, the Lyre, is approaching the east. The 
brilliant Vega shines with a tint decidedly different from 
that of Altair, the chief star of Aquila, Vega having a 
slightly bluish colour. Both differ still more markedly, 
however, from the orange-yellow Arcturus, now shining high 
in the southern skies. 

The part of the Milky Way now risen into view in the 
east is worth examining. Two streams can be recognised, 
one however, — the uppermost, — comes to an end where it 
reaches the constellation Ophiuchus. It is singular, that 
this stream, which is thus lost from excessive faintness on 
the right, is much brighter on the left (I refer always to 
the part of the heavens included in the eastern map) 
than the lower ; whereas the lower stream, which is faint 
on the left where it crosses Vuipecula and Sagitta, is very 
bright and conspicuous on the light where it crosses 
Aquila. 1 have attempted to explain this singular feature 
iu my " Universe of Stars." 

The constellation Aquila was formerly conjoined with 



THE STARS FOR JUNE. 129 

another called Antinous; but now Antinous has disappeared 
from our star-maps. 

All the constellations visible in the west (p. 139) have been 
already described, and nothing need be said about them. 
The student should, however, carefully compare the map 
with the heavens, noting that the aspect of the constellations, 
as they are now seen in the west, is entirely changed from 
that which they had presented in the east. 



STAR MAPS FOR JUNE. 



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THE EASTERN MAP FOR JUNE. 



•39 




THE WESTERN MAP FOR JUNE. 



THE STARS FOR JULY. 



In the northern map (p. 148) the Guardians have passed over 
to the left, or west, of due north. The Plough, or Dipper, 
now has its top — from 5 to a — nearly perpendicular to the 
horizon. The Camelopard is below the pole. The 
solitary star marked 2, near the fore-foot of the Giraffe 
belongs to the Lynx, a constellation of small stars, set by 
Hevelius in this barren region of the heavens. The con- 
stellation Perseus has nearly passed from below the pole 
close by the horizon, and a part of Auriga is taking its 
place. But the bright star, Capella, which is the glory of 
this constellation, is beneath the horizon at the hours 
named below the second northern map, for all places south 
of the horizon of Boston, and even for two degrees or so 
north of that horizon. 

It is toward the south (p. 149) that at present the heavens 
present the most glorious display. The contrast, in fact, 
between the northern and southern skies is very strange. 
Toward the north, the region below the pole shows not a single 
star above the fourth magnitude. Toward the south, the 
corresponding region (that is, the region extending some 
40 degrees from the horizon) is singularly rich in large 
stars, chief among them being Antares (the Heart of the 
Scorpion), and perhaps the most beautiful of all the red 
stars. The word Antares means, in fact, " the rival of 
Mars." Antares cannot, however, really be said to rival, 



M2 THE STARS FOR JUL V. 

in ruddiness or in splendour, the planet of war when at his 
brightest. 

Libra, which by rights should hold sway as the southern 
zodiacal constellation one month out of the twelve, has 
passed the south at the time shown in the southern map. 
The sign Libra has thirty degrees, like the rest, and pro- 




Fig. 23. — Ophiuchus and Scorpio. 

bably the original constellation had its due extension. A 
story is told by Servius to the effect that the original 
Chaldean zodiac had only eleven signs, and that Libra was 
made out of the claws of Scorpio. But there is ample 
evidence to show that both the sign and constellation Libra 
belonged to the earliest Chaldean and Egyptian zodiacs. 



THE STARS FOR JULY. 143 

The figures of the Scorpion, Ophiuchus (the Serpent- 
bearer), with his serpent, besides parts of Hercules (head, 
arm and club), Libra (the Scales), Sagittarius (the Archer) 
and Lupus (the Wolf), are shown in Fig. 23. 

The large constellation Ophiuchus is not specially in- 
teresting. It has been supposed by some to represent 
/Esculapius, and by others to be another celestial Hercules. 
Novidius insists that it prefigured the miracle of St. Paul 
and the viper, in which case the Maltese viper was con- 
siderably magnified in anticipation. The figure is a very 
absurd one, the legs being singularly feeble. But it must 
be admitted he is awkwardly placed. The serpent is quite 
enough to occupy his attention, yet a scorpion is ready to 
sting one leg and to pinch the other. The club of Hercules 
may be meant for the serpent, and the arrow of the Archer 
tor the scorpion, but they seem to threaten the Serpent- 
bearer at least as much. 

In the constellation Corona Eorealis, a star marked T 
will be noticed. Here no star can be seen ; but in May, 
1866, one blazed out here very brightly, and, though it soon 
faded in lustre, it is still visible with a telescope. Like the 
star which blazed out lately in the constellation Cygnus> 
this one was found to be shining with the light of glowing 
hydrogen gas. At its brightest it appeared as a star of the 
second magnitude. Its present lustre is about one eight- 
hundredth part of that. 

The ecliptic (the sun's path among the stars) still tends 
downward in both the southern maps. The place marked \\\ 
in the first southern map is that reached by the sun moving 
in the direction shown by the arrow on or about October 
10, when, passing from the sign Libra, he enters the sign 
Scorpio, of which v\ is the symbol. The place marked $ 
in the second southern map is that reached by the sun on 
or about November 22nd, when he enters the sign Sagittarius, 
of which X is the symbol. 

In the east (p. 152) the double part of the Milky Way has 
now risen high above the horizon, and in clear weather can be 



144 THE STARS FOR JULY. 

studied much more advantageously th**n a month later. 
The dark spaces, sometimes called the Northern Coalsacks, 
in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan), should be noticed. 
The whole of this part of the Milky Way is full of interest 
for the telescopist. Even with a good opera-glass, the 
bright parts of the galaxy here will be found to be ablaze 
with stars. 

The little constellation Delphin, or Delphinus as it is 
more commonly called (but the shorter name is the better), 
is now conveniently situated nearly due east. Equus (more 
commonly called Equuleus), the Lesser Horse, is below it, 
Pegasus following from the left ; but as both horses are 
upside down, the student of the stars must not expect to be 
very profoundly impressed by the resemblance between 
these groups and what they are supposed to represent — 
viz., Equus, a horse's head, and Pegasus, a winged half- 
horse. 

The constellation Cygnus, or " the Swan,'' is now well 
placed for observation. The stars a, /3, 8, y, and e, have 
been regarded as forming a cross, sometimes called the 
Northern Cross ; and when the line a to is upright, or 
nearly so, a cross may be very fairly pictured — a far finer 
cross, so far as size is concerned, than the famous Southern 
Cross. In the aspect presented on the map, however, the 
cross has its upright situated horizontally, or nearly so. 

The same remarks may be made about the western stars 
for July (p. 153) as about those for June. 



STAR MAPS FOR JULY. 



148 



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THE EASTERN MAP FOR JULY. 



'53 




THE WESTFRN MAP FOR JULY. 



THE STARS FOR AUGUST. 



The northern sky (p. 164) below the pole is now chiefly 
remarkable for the absence of large stars. It has always 
seemed to me that this large, desolate region of the sky is 
full of meaning, and that when the architecture of the 
heavens comes to be rightly understood, we shall find 
why it is that this region is thus barren. That the feature 
is" not accidental I am satisfied from a number of experi- 
ments I have made on the scattering of points. 

The head of the Dragon is now almost exactly above the 
pole. Not far from the point overhead shines the beautiful 
steel-blue star Vega. 

Although the map shows a part of Auriga (the Chario- 
teer), and notably the bright star Capella, yet only the star 
d of this constellation can be seen in America at the hours 
named below the map ; nor can even this star be seen from 
places south of the latitude of Nashville (Tenn.), or there- 
abouts. 

The ruling constellation of the zodiac this month 
(p. 165) is Sagittarius (the Archer). In Fig. 23 (p. 142), 
his bow-arm, bo>v, and arrow appear. I do not think 
it is necessary to give a full picture of this worthy. 
He is commonly presented as a centaur, though it is not 
easy to imagine the figure of a centaur among the stars 
of this constellation. The bow, however, is fairly well 
marked. 

G 2 



, 6 6 THE STARS FOR AUGUST. 

Admiral Smyth tells us that, in the days of Eratosthenes, 
the constellation Sagittarius was pictured as a satyr j and so 
it appears on the Farnese globe. 

From places in the latitude of New Orleans, the con- 
stellation Ara, or "the Altar," can be partly seen. In 
England, as may be seen by the position of the horizon of 
London, we nut only see no part of this constellation, but 
a large part of the curved tail of Scorpio is hidden from our 



view. 



The constellation Ara, though now so far south that it 
cannot be seen from the latitude of Philadelphia, nor 
entirely from any latitude north of 29 S., belongs to the 48 
of Ptolemy's time, and was formerly well raised above the 
horizon of places in latitude 40° S. That reeling of the 
earth, like a top, of which I have already spoken— a move- 
ment having for its period nearly 25,900 years— has, within 
the last 4,000 years or so (the probable age of the old con- 
stellations), so shifted the position of the earth's axis in 
space,* that this constellation has been thrown out of view 
from places whence, at the beginning of these 4.000 years, 
it could be well seen. Probably it was some later astro- 
nomer, who had never seen this constellation, who first 

* The young reader must not here fall into the mistake of supposing 
that the position of the axis in the earth itself has changed in this way. 
This mistake is commonly made, and not by young learners, who may 
well be excused for falling into it, but by persons who suppose them- 
selves in* a position to teach. For instance : In Jules Verne's enter- 
taining story, "Captain Hatteras," the following passage occurs, in 
which this error is introduced : " ' I told you,' resumed the doctor, who 
took as much pleasure in giving as the others did in receiving instruction 
— ' I told you that the pole was motionless in comparison with the rest 
of the globe. Well, that is not quite true ! ' ' What !' said Bell, ' has 
that got to be taken back ?' ' Yes, Bell, the pole is not always exactly 
in the same place ; formerly the North Star was farther from the 
celestial pole than it is now. So our pole has a certain motion ; it de- 
scribes a circle in about 26,000 years. This comes from the precession 
of the equinoxes, of which I shall speak soon.' " The actual eftect of 
the precession of the equinoxes may be thus illustrated. Imagine a top 
shaped like a ball, spinning rapidly on its axis, and very slowly reeling, 



Tim STARS FOR AUGUST. 157 

made the mistake of drawing it upside down. As this con- 
stellation was never seen except when due south, just above 
the horizon, it is certain that it must have been imagined, 
by those who formed it, as standing an upright altar in the 
south. But modern pictures draw it so that, at the only 
time when it was visible, it would have had to be imagined 
as having its top with the flaming wood upon it just touch- 
ing the horizon, while its base would have been above. 
This is so absurd that I ventured, some eleven years ago, 
in a set of drawings of the constellation figures, to set the 
altar on its base again. I was confirmed in my opinion 
that this was right, by the fact that on the Farnese globe, 
and in a chart of Geruvigus (Harleian MS., 64) the altar is 
represented in this upright position. Besides, the old astro- 
nomical poet, Aratus describes the Centaur as laying on the 
altar (not absurdly applying to its inverted base) the body of 
some beast unnamed — the modern Lupus ; while Manlius, a 
Latin poet (who wrote probably in the reign of Tiberius), 
speaks of the altar as " bearing fire of frankincense, pictured by 
stars " (Ara ferens thuris stellis imitantibus zgnem). An in- 
verted altar cannot " bear " anything. Besides, you can 
see how the smoke of the fire really is pictured by the 
Milky Way, when once the top of the altar is set toward a, 
or upward. 

its axis being inclined about 23^ degrees from the vertical, or toward a 
point rather more than one-fourth of the way from the point overhead 
toward the horizon. Let this spinning and reeling ball be carried 
round a much larger globe, glowing with light and heat, to represent 
the sun. Then, if the ball turns 365J times on its axis while it is going 
once round the large globe, and reels so slowly that it could be carried 
25,868 times round the large globe in making a single complete reel, 
it would illustrate the earth's motion of rotation (or spinning) once a 
day, of revolution (or of being carried round the sun) once a year, and 
of precession (or reeling) once in 25,868 years. The poles of the earth 
no more change than the position of the axis of a top within the wood ; 
but the pole of the heavens (that is, the point toward which the axis is 
directed) makes a circuit once in 25,868 years, just as the point of the 
sky toward which the axis of a top is directed circuits once round the 
point overhead in each reel of the top. 



158 THE STARS FOR AUGUST. 

Overhead are the Lyre and Hercules ; but neither is well 
placed for observation. 

We have now reached the most southerly part of the 
ecliptic, marked by the symbol yf, which indicates the 
point where the sun, moving in the direction shown by the 
arrow, enters the sign Capricornus, which he does on or 
about December 20. 

The Milky Way toward the south at this season is well 
worth studying. It is strange when we look at those com- 
plex branches, loops, and curdling masses, to find most of 
our books of astronomy still asserting that the Milky Way, 
is a faint stream of misty light circling the celestial 
sphere, and divided into two along half its length. Re- 
membering, too, that the Milky Way is entirely made up of 
clustering stars, as sands on the sea-shore for multitude, 
each star being a sun glowing with its own inherent light 
and heat, startling thoughts are suggested respecting the 
immensity of the universe when we find clouds of these stars 
strewn through space. 

Not far from the star £ of Ophiuchus is shown the place 
where, in 1604, a new star appeared, which shone for a 
while more brightly than any of the fixed stars. " It 
was exactly," says the account, ft like one of the stars 
except that, in the vividness of its lustre and the quickness 
of its sparkling, it exceeded anything Kepler had ever seen 
before. It was every moment changing into some of the 
colours of the rainbow, as yellow, orange, purple, and red, 
though it was generally white when it was at some distance 
from the vapours of the horizon." These changes of colour 
were, of course, due entirely to our own air. Similar 
changes can always be seen in the colour of a star shining 
near the horizon, as you can see by observing Antares. 
Kepler's star only preserved its full lustre for about three 
weeks, after which it gradually grew fainter, until towards 
the end of 1605 it disappeared. 

Pegasus (the Winged Horse), the constellation which has 
risen above the eastern horizon (p. 168) at the hours mentioned 



THE STARS FOR AUGUST. 159 

under the maps for this month, is the same which, eight 
months ago, was above the western horizon. (The actual 
point of the star-sphere rising at any moment in the east — 
that is, due east — is of course the same which six months 
before had been, or six months after will be, passing below 
the western horizon at the same hour of the day ; but as a 
star-group of considerable size may be an hour or two in 
clearing the horizon, cither rising or setting, it may be seven 
or eight months before a constellation which had been just 
wholly above the western horizon is seen wholly above the 
eastern horizon at the same hour.) It will be observed — 
and the point is well worth careful noting — that the position 




Fig. 24. — Bootes and Corona Borealis. 

of Pegasus is entirely changed from that which it had 
occupied before it began to pass below the western horizon 
in January. Then the head of Pegasus was close to the 
horizon, and on the left as you stood facing the west Now, 
though his head lies towards the left, it is much higher 
above the horizon than the winged back. In both cases, 
however, the horse is represented in an unnatural position, 
Or at least in a position which a horse could only assume 



i6o THE STARS FOR AUGUST. 

by accident. But then a winged horse may, perhaps, be 
considered free to assume any attitude he pleases, to have 
his head or his back lowest at will — his feet on this side or 
that or flourishing upwards. Again, observe that now in 
the east, Aquarius (the Water Bearer), as yet, however, only 
partially above the horizon, lies to the right of Pegasus; 
whereas in January Aquarius had already completely set at 
the same hours. On the other hand, Cetus has not yet 
risen in the east even in part (the Sea Monster will begin 
to show a part of his vast bulk next month) ; whereas in 
January the whole of this constellation was above the 
horizon, but towards the south-west, so as not to fall into the 
western map for that month. 

The Milky Way, where it crosses the eastern sky, is full 
of beauty and interest. It is singularly bright in the space 
between the stars £, y, and 8 of the constellation Cygnus. 

In the west (p. 169) there is little specially to notice, 
except the noble figure presented by Bootes (the Herdsman) 
(Fig. 2 +\ now mere favourably placed for study as a con- 
stellation than at any other season of the year. 



STAR MAPS FOR AUGUST, 



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165 




THE SOUTHERN MAP FOR AUGUST. 



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THE EASTERN MAP FOR AUGUST. 



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THE WESTERN MP FOR AUGUST. 



THE STARS FOR SEPTEMBER. 



The Great Bear (p. 182) is now approaching the north again, 
low down. The two forward stars of the Plough, or Dipper, 
a and /3, can be seen in our northern map for the hours 
named, low down on the left ; but I remind the learner that, 




Fig. 25. — Aquarius, Capricoruus, and Piscis Australis. 

so far as the Plough is concerned, the picture illustrating the 
opening pages about " A Clock in the Sky," is the one to 
be studied. The Little Bear is now descending on the left 
or west side of the poie. 



\7'i THE STARS FOR SEPTEMBER. 

In the southern heavens (p. 1S3) we find two ecliptical 
constellations dividing the honours of the night, Sagittarius 
(the Archer) and Capricornus (the Sea Goat), Fig. 25. 
Sagittarius needs no special mention this month after 
what 1 said of him in the last section. 

Capricornus was formerly the constellation entered by the 
sun on the shortest day of the year, when he is farthest south 
of the equator, and about to begin his return toward it. You 
will see that at present the constellation includes the 
ascending sign, marked zz for Aquarius (the Water-Bearer) 
(The symbol is placed on the right or west of the division 
of the ecliptic to which it belongs.) A strange superstition 
was entertained by the old astrologers, that whenever all the 
planets come together in Capricornus there is a deluge. 
Some said, indeed, that the Flood had been occasioned by 
such a conjunction, and that when all the planets come 
together in Cancer the world will be destroyed by fire. I 
suppose the origin of the superstition was somewhat on this 
wise : They saw that when the sun, one of the planets of the 
astrological system, was in Cancer his rays were warmest ; 
when he was in Capricorn, his rays were feeblest, and the 
air usually damp and cold. If such effects followed when 
one planet was in these constellations, much more might 
heat be expected when several of the planets were together 
in Cancer, and floods of rain when several were together in 
Capricorn. But when all were together in either constella- 
tion, then the greatest heat or the worst floods possible 
might be expected. The tradition is a very ancient one 
indeed. Admiral Smyth attributes its invention to the 
astrologers ot the Middle Ages ; but in reality it was due to 
the Chaldean astronomers, and is found in company with a 
statement that they had observed the heavens for 470,000 
years, during which time they had calculated the nativity of 
all the children who had been born. It is not absolutely 
necessary, however, that you should believe this. For my 
own part, I think it quite possible that they omitted some of 
the children born during that long period. 



THE STARS FOR SEPTEMBER. 173 

Capricornus is usually represented as a fish-tailed goat, the 
head and horns where the two stars a and are marked, the 
feet (fore-feet) at -Jr, the tail flourishing off toward y and 8. 

Higher up in the heavens we see the fine constellation 
Aquila or " the Eagle," usually represented in modern 
maps as shown in Fig. 26. Formerly a figure of the 
Bithynian youth, Antinous, was included in this constella- 
tion ; but he is now generally omitted. Parts of the Milky 
Way, near and in this constellation, are very bright, and even 
with a small telescope seem to be crowded with stars. 

Close to Aquila is the pretty little constellation the 
Dolphin, called Delphinus, or, perhaps better. — as in my 




Fi<j 26. — Aquila. 

Has, — Delphin, which is as good Latin and shorter. This 
little group really shows some degree of resemblance to the 
animal whose name has been given to it, though our modern 
maps do not picture a real dolphin, but a creature, as 
Admiral Smyth well remarks, resembling rather a huge 
periwinkle pulled out of its shell ; and certainly not " very 
like a whale." He quotes a curious blunder of certain 
Orientalists, who, finding the old Hindu name of the group 
to signify a sea-hog, considered it was not meant to be a fish 
at all ; but the Hindu " sea-hog" was the porpoise. Indeed, 
the French name, from which our word porpoise is derived, 
shows that the resemblance has struck others besides the 



174 'IHE S TA RS FOR SEP 7 EMBER, 

Hindus — that name being porc-poisson, or hog-fish. Smyth 
himself has made an amusing mistake about the two stars 
Alpha and Beta of the Dolphin, which bear the pleasing 
names, Svalocin and Rotanev. Of the first epithet, which 
he call "cacophonous and barbaric," he remarks that "no 
poring into tne black-letter versions of the Almagest, El 
Hattani, Ibn Yiinis, and other authorities, enables one to 
form any rational conjecture as to the misreading, miswriting, 
©r misapplication, in which so strange a metamorphosis 
could have originated." Of Rotanev he simply says that 
this barbarous term " putteth derivation and etymology at 
defiance." If he could but have found Arabic meanin'gs 
for these words, as delightful a story might have resulted as 
that about Mr. Pickwick's great prize, the stone bearing the 
inscription — 

DILST 

umpshi 

SMARK 

or the true story of " Keip on this Syde," mentioned in frhe 
"Antiquary" in connection with the stone inscribed 
A. K. L. L. for Aiken Drum's Lang Ladle. The real ex- 
planation of the name Svalocin and Rotanev is very simple. 
The names first appear in the Palermo Catalogue. The 
name of the chief assistant there was Nicolo Cacciatore, or 
Nicholas the Hunter, the Latin for which is Nicolaus 
Venator. Reverse these names and you get Svalocin and 
Rotanev. Mr. Webb (whose " Celestial Objects for Common 
Telescopes" every student should possess) seems to have 
been the first to explain Signor Cacciatore's little puzzle. 
He truly says that if the above account is not the right 
key, it is certainly a marvel that it should open the lock so 
readily. 

Above Aquila we see Sagitta (the Arrow), the smallest of 
the ancient constellations. The present appearance of the 
stars forming this small group does not very startling'ly 
impress the idea of an arrow upon one. Possibly the stars 



THE STARS FOR SEPTEMBER. 175 

have somewhat changed in brightness and in relative position 
since the group was named. In fact, we know that all the 
stars are rushing with enormous velocity through space, and 
though they seem to change very slowly indeed in their posi- 
tion in the heavens, so that most of the constellations have 
changed very little even during the 4,000 years which have 
passed since they were mapped, yet a small group like 
Sagitta would show the effects of such changes readily enough 
after a few thousand years. It is at least two thousand, and 
probably four thousand, years old. 

The neighbouring constellation, Vulpecula et Anser, or 
" the Fox and the Goose," on the other hand, is not an old 
one but was formed by Hevelius (small thanks to him). " I 
wished," he says, "to place a fox with a goose in the space 
of sky well fitted to it; because such an animal is very 
cunning, voracious, and fierce." (This is a reason, indeed.) 
" Aquilaand Vultur" (Lyra," the Lyre," was sometimes called 
Vultur Cadens, " the Swooping Vulture") " are of the same 
nature, rapacious and greedy." He might have reasoned 
equally well that Anser (the Goose,) was fitly placed near 
Cygnus (the Swan), and that the Arrow (Sagitta), which had 
passed over the Eagle's head, might be regarded as fairly 
aimed for the Fox. The real fact is, I suppose, that Hevelius 
was determined to fit in a constellation of his own in this 
space between Sagitta and Cygnus, and was prepared to be 
content with any argument, good, bad, or indifferent, in 
favour of his plan. 

For shortness, the constellation may be conveniently 
called Vulpecula, or, as in my large atlas, Vulpes — that is, 
the Fox, instead of " the Little Fox." 

In Vulpecula there is a remarkable object called the 
Dumb-bell nebula, or star-cloud. It cannot be seen without 
a telescope, and a powerful telescope is required to show the 
object as pictured in Fig. 27. It was formerly thought to 
consist entirely of small stars, so remote that they could 
not be separately discerned ; but it has lately been 
discovered that the greater part of this nebula's light 




176 THE STARS FOR SEPTEMBER. 

comes from glowing gas. The vastness of the space 
occupied by this cloud of luminous gas will be under- 
stood—though no mind can possibly conceive it — when I 
mention that at the distance of the nearest of the fixed 
stars the whole of our solar system would appear but 
as a mere point, even in a powerful 
telescope. The Dumb-bell nebula covers 
quite a large space as seen in sucli an 
instrument. It is also, probably, much 
farther away than the nearest fixed stars. 
It must, therefore occupy a region of 
Fig. 27.— The Dumb- space exceeding many times that througli 
Bell Nebula. which the planets of Qur solar system 

pursue their paths. Yet the span of our earth's path 
around the sun is fully one hundred and eighty-four 
millions of miles ; while Neptune — the remotest planet 
of the solar system — travels thirty times farther from the 
sun, having thus an orbit spanning more than five thousand 
millions of miles. A globe just fitting the path of Neptune 
would contain many quadrillions of cubic miles, — and pro- 
bably the Dumb-bell nebula exceeds such a globe in volume 
(or to speak more exactly, occupies a space exceeding such 
a globe in volume) many millions of times. 

Very strange is the thought that astronomers should have 
been able to find out what this mighty mass of glowing gas 
consists of. Placed yonder amid the glories of the Milky 
Way, lost to human vision through its vast remoteness, only 
brought within our view at all by means of powerful tele- 
scopes, and only revealing its true shape when seen with the 
most powerful telescopes men have yet constructed, what at 
first sight can seem more amazing than that men should be 
able to tell what kind of substance it is which gives out the 
misty lustre of that cloudlet in space? The very light 
which comes to us from the Dumb-bell nebula has probably 
taken hundreds of years in crossing the tremendous space 
separating us from that object. Yet that light has conveyed 
its message truly. Examined with that instrument, the 



1 HE ST A RS FOR SEPTEMBER. 1 7 7 

spectroscope, the light of the Dumb-bell nebula presents, 
not the rainbow-tinted streak which comes from glowing 
solid and liquid bodies, but three bright lights only. At 
least three lines are seen if the nebula is examined 
through a fine slit ; if the field of view is opened, there are 
seen three faint images of the cloudlet. The correct way of 
describing what the spectroscope tells us about this object is 
to say that, instead of its light presenting all the colours of 
the rainbow, it is found, when sifted by the spectroscope, to 
contain three colours only, all of them greenish, but slightly 
different in tint. One of the colours is precisely such a tint 
of green as comes (with four other colours) from glowing 
hydrogen gas, and shows us that there are enormous masses 
of hydrogen in that remote cloud ; another tint shows, in 
like manner, that there are immense masses of nitrogen ; 
but the third tint has not yet been found to correspond with 
a tint emitted by any known substance. The skein of light 
from that double fluff-ball has thus been unravelled by the 
spectroscope, after journeying millions of millions of miles 
and has been sorted into three tints, two of which have been 
matched against the known tints of earthly gases, but the 
third remains as yet unmatched. 

In the east (p. 186) the square of Pegasus is the most con- 
spicuous feature. Its position should be carefully compared 
with that which it occupied in January in the western sky. 
The line joining the two Alphas, now nearly horizontal, was 
then nearly vertical. Andromeda now occupies the position 
above Aries referred to in Milton's well-known lines : 



M Such wonder seized, though after Heav'n seen, 
The Spirit malign, but much more envy seized, 
At sight of all this world beheld so fair, 
Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood, 
So high above the circling canopy 
Of night's extended shade), from eastern point 
Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears 
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas 
Beyond the horizon." 



178 THE STARS FOR SEPTEMBER. 

In the western skies (p. 187) the fine position of Bootes is 
worth noticing. The figure is now nearly upright, and though 
our latitude is much farther north than that of the astronomers 
who first devised the constellations, yet (owing partly to the 
change in the position of the pole of the heavens, correcting 
the effect of difference of latitude) we now see Bootes the 
Herdsman chasing the Great Bear towards the north, much 
as in all probability he was imagined by those who invented 
these fine constellations. To make his figure complete, 
however, as Bootes the Shouter, we ought to include the 
stars of the northern crown as forming part of his figure. So 
imagined, this constellation seems t© me second only to 
Orion in suggestiveness. 



STAR MAPS FOR SEPTEMBER 




THE NORTHERN MAP FOR SEPTEMBER. 



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THE SOUTHERN MAP FOR SEPTEMBER. 



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THE EASTERN MAP FOR SEPTEMBER. 



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THE WESTERN MAP FOR SEPTEMBER. 



THE STARS FOR OCTOBER. 



The Plough, or Dipper. 

I propose now to give a briei account of the seven bright 
stars of the Plough, or Dipper, as they really are, not merely 
as they appear in the sky. I take them as the most convenient, 
and in several respects also as the best, illustration oi what 
applies in reality (with changes in matters of detail) to all the 
thousands of stars we see, and to thousands of times as 
many stars which only the telescope reveals to us. 

When you look during the evenings of this month at the 
stars oi this group, seen low down toward the north, in the 
position shown in Map I. for the month, you see seven 
small points of brilliant light, — each of them seems like the 
" little star" in the familiar nursery rhyme. If the eye were 
a perfect optical instrument, and the air were perfectly 
transparent and still, and if, also, light instead of travelling 
to us in waves of many lengths, gave us an exactly truthful 
account of what is out yonder in space, even the seven little 
stars we see would be very much reduced in seeming size. 
They would appear as mere points. The most powerful 
telescope men have yet made, and probably the most 
powerful telescope men ever wiil make, would not show these 
seven stars larger than points, such that the human eye could 
perceive no breadth in those minute disks. Such are the 
stars, even the leading ones, to the natural eye. In the 
mind's eye, however, these seven stars are very different 



ifjo THE S1ARS FOR OCTOBER. 

objects. I am not going to draw on my imagination in 
what I am about to tell you. I am not going to show what 
these stars may be, but to describe what science assures us 
that they are, 

Sizls of the Stars of the Plough, or Dipper. 

In the first place, then, every one of these seven points 
of light is an enormous globe, not only larger than the earth 
on which we live, but thousands or rather hundreds of 
thousands of times larger. How large they really are we do 
not know ; we do not even know how far away they are ; 
but we do know they are so far away that our sun removed 
and set beside the nearest of them would not look so bright 
as the faintest of the seven. They may be so far away that 
our sun removed to their distance would scarce be seen at 
all, or would even require a powerful telescope to show 
him ; but that he would not be so bright as Delta, the 
middle one, and the faintest of the seven, is certain. In 
considering what this means, you should remember that the 
sun himself looks only a small body. We might well 
believe, so far as appearances are concerned, that he is no 
larger than the moon, and the moon no larger than yonder 
hill that hides her from our view as she sets. But the 
sun is in reality a globe exceeding our earth one million 
and a quarter times in volume. If such a globe as our 
earth, only, were set aglow with a brightness so great that 
every part of her surface shone more resplendently than the 
piece of lime used in the calcium lantern (and one cannot 
easily look at that piece of lime so glowing), and this 
enormous mass of white-hot fire were set travelling away 
toward the nearest star of the Plough, it would be utterly 
lost to view before it had traversed a fiftieth part of the 
distance ! 

Their Composition. 

Secondly, every one of the seven stars consists of matter 
like that in our sun, glowing with intense lustre. When 



I HE STARS FOR OCTOBER. 191 

we use the instrument called the spectroscope, distance 
does not prevent us from recognizing vapours of various 
kinds in the atmosphere o. a luminous body so long as 
the light reaches us in sufficient amount. In the case of 
the stars, distant though they are, we get the same sort of 
miormation. And thus we learn that iron, sodium, 
magnesium, calcium, hydrogen, and others oi our familiar 
elements exist in the atmospheres of the stars, just as we 
have iound that they exist in the atmosphere of our own 
sun. These seven stars, like our sun and their fellow-suns, 
are great masses of intensely hot matter, all around which 
there lies a deep atmosphere of glowing gases, including in 
the vapourous form many of those elements, such as our 
metals, which the greatest heat we can use serves only to 
melt, not to turn into vapour.* You know that at a certain 
low degree of heat water is solid, at ordinary heat it 
becomes fluid, and at a great heat — much hotter than the 
greatest the hand can bear — water turns into steam or 
vapour. Iron only becomes fluid at a heat far greater than 
that at which water boils. You can imagine, t'.ien, how 
intense the heat must be at which mohen iron '.urm. into 
iron-steam. But in the sun and in his fellow- suns the stars, 
iron, and substances still more stubborn in their resistant 
to heat, are turned into the form of vapour. The air of 
every star is a mixture of iron-steam, zinc-steam, calcium- 
steam, and many Other such fiery vapours, besides hydrogen ; 
and all these vapours are so hot that they shine with their 
own inherent lustre. Imagine an atmosphere such as this, 
where the clouds which form are metallic drops, and the 
rains which fall are sheets of molten metals 1 

* I must mention — without explaining, however — that by means, of 
electricity, the most stubborn metals can be vapourized in small quan- 
tities, and for a briet space oi time. But I am speaking above of such 
heat as we obtain in lurnaces. 



192 THE STARS FOR OCTOBER. 



Their Motion. 

But thirdly, — and this is the point to which I want chiefly 
to direct your attention, — every one of these seven suns is 
in swift motion. It was formerly supposed that the fixed 
stars really were at rest, because year after year, and century 
after century, passed without showing any change in their 
position. But gradually — even before the telescope was 
much used in observing the places of stars— it began to be 
suspected that they are slowly shifting in position on the 
vault of heaven. Later, very close attention was paid to the 
point, the telescope being used to determine the exact 
positions of a great number of stars, and now about 2,000 
have had their slow motions on the star-vaults measured, 
and set down in tables for the use of astronomers employed 
in observatories. It occurred to me, seven or eight years 




Fig. 28. — Seven stars of the Plough. 

ago, that it would be interesting to picture these star-motions 
in maps ; for tables, after all, though very pleasant in their 
way, are not very clear in their teachings. I made, there- 
fore, two charts, one of all the northern stars, the other of 
all the southern stars, whose motions have been ascertained. 
These charts are given in a book of mine called "The 
Universe f but a sufficient idea of the method I employed 
may be derived from Fig. 28, above, showing the move- 
ments of the seven stars of the Plough. The little arrows 
attached to the seven stars show the courses along which 



THE STARS FOR OCTOBER. 193 

these stars are moving. But the length of each arrow has 
a meaning, too, for it is made proportional to the rate at 
which the star is changing its place. I have said above 
that the stars are in swift motion ; and I have also spoken 
of the stars as slowly shifting in position. I think you will 
presently admit that both these descriptions are correct. 
For, first, each arrow in the figure has a length corre- 
sponding to the distance its star travels during thirty-six 
thousand years. After this enormous period, the stars will 
have moved from their present positions to the points of 
their respective arrows, so that the shape of the Plough will 
then be as in Fig. 29. 




Fig. 29. — The same stars 36,000 years hence.* 

It will be easy for the young student now to find the 
shape of the Plough at any time, past or to come. Fig. 3° 
shows the shape it will have 100,000 years hence ; Fig. 31 
shows the shape it had 100,000 years ago. 

Comparing Fig. 29 with Fig. 28, it cannot but be admitted 
that the change is small for an interval so long as 36,000 

* It may be well for me, perhaps, to explain that my charts of the 
motions of stars in the Great Bear, etc., were published before M. Flam- 
marion wrote a paper called " The Past and Future of a Constellation," 
in which he made use of my charts, as I have myself done above. I do 
not in the least mind any one's borrowing from me without acknowledging 
the obligation, — an omission which can easily result from carelessness, — 
but I do not wish it to be thought that I have myself borrowed without 
acknowledgment, where, in reality, I am only using my own material, 
gathered, by the way, at the cost of some labour. 



194 THE STARS FOR OCTOBER. 

years. Consider that, according to the usual way of 
reckoning, less than a fifth of this interval has elapsed since 
the very beginning of our history, and that all the time 
these slow stars have been creeping over only a sixth part 




Fig. 30.- — The same siars 100,000 years hence. 

of the short arc on the heavens which measures their motion 
during 36.000 years, as shown in Fig. 28. 

Yet a very easy calculation will show that the same 
motion which is so slow when thus measured is, in reality, 
enormously swift. If you notice the arrows in Fig. 28, you 




Fig. 31. — The same stars 100,000 years ago. 

will see that the length of each differs very little from the 
distance between £ and the companion star Jack by-the- 
Middle Horse. Now, this distance is equal to about half 
the apparent diameter of the sun. Thus, if any of these 
stars were at the sun's distance from us, its arrow would be 



THE STARS FOR OCTOBER. 195 

equal in real length to about- half the sun's diameter, or 
considerably more than 400,000 miles. But the nearest of 
all the stars is more than 200,000 times farther away than the 
sun ; and there is every reason to believe that each one of 
the seven stars of the Plough is at least five times farther 
away than the nearest star, and probably farther away still. 
Thus the arrow attached to each of the seven stars 
represents a thwart distance of a million times 400,000 
miles, or 400,000,000,000 miles at least. So that, as this 
distance is traversed in 36,000 years, the distance traversed 
each year is more than 11,000,000 miles. As there are 31 J 
million seconds in a year, it follows that the thwart motion 
of each of these stars amounts to at least one-third of a mile 
per second. This is about five times the swiftness of a 
cannon-ball, and for a giant mass like a sun, doubtless with an 
attendant family of planets, represents a truly tremendous 
energy of motion. But probably the real distance of these 
seven stars is so great that their thwart motion is very much 
greater. We come now, however, to the most wonderful 
point of all. 

The Family of Five. 

In all four figures, it will be noticed, the five stars, /3, y, 8, 
*, {, besides the companion star of C, occupy much the same 
position. The breaking of the Plough is caused by the 
motions of a and rj, not by those of the other five stars, 
which move as though they were all connected together and 
formed a single system. Noticing this, and finding that in 
other parts of the stellar heavens a similar phenomenon 
could be recognized, I was led to believe that these are 
really cases of drifting motions among the stars, — in other 
words, that there are sets or systems of stars travelling 
together, each as a single family, through space, and that 
the five stars /3, y, 8, e, and £, form one of these iamilies. 

Now, it so chanced that a method had recently been 
indicated for measuring the motions of stars from or toward 
us, — not the thwart motions by which they change their 



196 THE STARS FOR OCTOBER. 

apparent position in the sky, but the motions by which they 
change their distance from us. I do not now enter into an 
explanation of this method, simply mentioning that the 
light waves as they come in from a star show by their 
nature whether the star is moving from or towards us. 
and at what rate. Here, then, was a means of testing my 
theory that five stars of the Plough form a single family; 
for if they do, then all five are, of course, receding from 
us, or approaching us, at the same rate. The matter was put 
to the test two or three years after I had suggested the trial; 
and it was found (by Mr. Huggins, the present President 
of the Astronomical Society) that the five stars are all 
receding at the same common rate of seventeen miles per 
second. 

Thus, when you look at the Plough, the seven points 
which you see seemingly at rest, are in reality, seven 
splendi I suns, certainly much larger, and probably very 
much larger, than our own ; they are all raging with fiery 
heat and glowing with the most intense lustre ; they are all 
rushing with inconceivable swiftness through the depths oi 
space ; and lastly, five of them, though separated from each 
other by millions of millions of miles, form, nevertheless, a 
single family (oi which the companion of ( is a subordinate 
member), and rush as one system through space, each 
attended by its own family of dependent worlds 1 

The Stars for October. 

And now let us turn to the stars for the month. You will 
note that the northern map (p. 204) requires no explanation 
this month, all the constellations shown in it having already 
been described. The map is necessary, like the northern 
map for the next two months, to complete the series. For 
the observer shouid be able, from his set of monthly maps, 
to begin the work of studying the stars at any part of the 
year. But for the description of the various constellations 
shown in the northern map for this month, he can refer to 



THE STARS FOR OCTUb'ER. 197 

the account given for other months, when these constella- 
tions were visible, but differently placed. 

The case is different with the southern stars (p. 205). These 
change all the year round, — not like the northern stars by 
merely circling round the pole, changing in position only as 
the hand of a clock does, — but new constellations coming 
constantly into view until the circuit of the year has been 
completed. 

Yet we shall not have occasion this month for any 
lengthened descriptions, even of the southern stars. It has 
been for this reason that I selected this month for the 
account I have given of the real nature of the stars in the 
Plough. It seems to me, indeed, that merely to learn the 
stars is little, unless we know what they are. Then only 
iiave the glories of the starlit heavens their real meaning 
for us. 

The chief ecliptiral sign this month is Aquarius, the 
AVater bearer, though the tail of the Sea-goat has not yet 
passed very far toward the west of the southern or central 
line of our monthly map. 
Although many say they 
can see nothing in this con- 
stellation to suggest the idea 
of a man carrying a water- 
jar, I think that no very 
lively imagination is re- 
quired to portray such a 

figure among the stars. 

rr., u- ir • i 1 Fig. 32. — Part of Aquarius. 

Ihe man himself, indeed, 

is wanting ; but that is a detail : the water-can and the 

streams are there. The jar is formed by the stars rj, £, 

7r, 7, and a, as shown in Fig. 32. I am not quite sure 

whether originally the mouth of the jar may not have been 

fancied at a, and the handle at rj. At present the jar, 

as you see in the southern map, comes horizontally to 

the south, and it matters little which end of the jar we 

suppose to be the mouth. But some four thousand years 





I}8 THE STARS FOR OCTOBER. 

ago (and the constellation is at least six thousand years old), 
it came to the south with the end»7 considerably higher than 
the end a ; and as the idea was always that of a man 
pouring out water, I think the lower end of the jar was 
probably regarded as the mouth. You can easily see that 
the set of stars would serve either way — perhaps rather 

better the old way (as I 
suppose) than as in Fig. 32 ; 
for r) and ( mark rather 
a stem than an opening, 
whereas the two stars a and 
32 (if not o also) as in Fig. 
33, would serve to represent 
the open mouth of a jar. 

Fig. 33-Part of Aquarius B ° th wa >' s thc SUrS * and 

y would correspond to the 

body of the jar. The streams are not shown in the ma l , 

because formed of small stars. Nor could they easily be 

presented, except in a large picture. But if you look 

attentively, you will see in the sky itself two streams, 

extending from below the star (rather from below a than from 

below t), by the way), one passing windingly toward the star 

Fomalhaut,— the mouth of the Southern Fish,— the other 

Mowing windingly over the Sea goat, and thence along what 

is now called the Crane (Grus), a set of stars unquestionably 

belonging to the old water streams of Aquarius. 

The sun in his annual motion passes the point of the 
ecliptic marked X , or, m technical terms, enters the sign 
Pisces on or about February 1 8 

Little need be said about the remaining constellations 
visible toward the south. Piscis Australis, or " the Southern 
Fish," is chiefly remarkable for the bright star Fomalhaut in 
the rish's mouth. It may interest vou to learn that the 
Arabs, before they learned the Greek constellations, called 
the Southern Fish " the First Frog ;" a part of Cetus (the 
Whale), which figures toward the south next month, being 
called the u Second Frog." 



THE STARS FOR OCTOBER. 199 

In the east (p. 208), Andromeda and Aries are die chief 
constellations ; but Cetus, whose head is shown in our 
eastern map, is worthy of notice, occupying a position near 
the horizon between the east and south-east. It has always 
seemed to me that the stars of this ancient constellation 
suggest the figure of some of those strange sea monsters, 
the Ichthyosaurians and Plesiusaurians, which are supposed 
to have passed away before man entered upon this terrestrial 
scene. 

Taurus, Perseus, and Cassiopeia, with the Milky Way, 
extending from the north-eastern horizon to the point over- 
head, are also well worth observing at the present season 
of the year. 

In the west (p. 209) the most noteworthy star-groups at 
present are Cygnus (the Falling Bird of the old astronomers), 
and Lyra (the Rising Bird), so called because the Lyre was 
commonly represented as grasped in the claws of a bird 
flying in a direction contrary to that in which the Swan was 
supposed to be moving. It will be interesting to the young 
observer to compare the steel-blue white of the brilliant 
Vega with the purer white of Altair. The Cross of Cygnus, 
formed by the five stars a, |3, e, y, and 8 (o and /3 forming 
the upright and e 8 the cross-bar), is worth noting, and the 
complicated region of the Milky Way in this neighbour- 
hood, now well seen on clear nights because raised so high 
above the horizon. The splendour of the Milky Way in 
the space between the stars y, fi, and /3 of Cygnus is very 
remarkable. When this part of the hea ens is examined 
with a good opera-glass an idea of the wealth of the 
heavens in suns is afiorded ; for where the naked eye per- 
cei /es but a cloudy light the small powers even of an opera- 
glass reveal thousands of suns. In the gauging telescopes 
of the Herschels, hundreds of thousands of stars were seen 
as this part of the Milky Way was carried by the earth's 
motion across the telescopic field of view. 



STAR MAPS FOR OCTOBER. 



204 




THE NORTHERN MAP FOR OCTOBER. 



20 5 




THE SOUTHERN MAP FOR OCTOBER. 



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THE STARS FOR NOVEMBER. 



The northern map (p. 220) explains itself, because we have 
already considered separately the constellations which 
appear in it. The Plough or Dipper is well placed for 
observation at this season for all places in America north of 
the latitude of Louisville, or not more than about two 
degrees south of it; but for places between this last-named 
latitude and that of New Orleans, a portion of the Plough is 
concealed from view. Nearly the whole constellation Ursa 
Major is seen in London, when due south below the pole ; 
but the paws of the Great Bear are not seen in America at 
this time. 

Turning to the southern skies (p. 221) for the month wefind 
that the constellation Pisces, or " the Fishes," is the ecliptical 
constellation now ruling in th j south. It is usually 
represented by two fishes tied together with a ribbon ; one of 
the fishes has its tail at rj, and its head close to Andromeda; 
the other has its head at y and p. You must be carelul to 
distinguish the two fishes, Pisces, from the Southern Fish, 
Piscis Australis. 

The constellation Pisces now includes the point marked 
or, which is where the sign of the Ram begins, and was 
formerly occupied by this constellation ; though, more 
anciently still, the Bull was the constellation occupying this 
part of the heavens. The Fishes belonged to the watery 
signs of the zodiac — Capricorn (the Sea-goat), Aquarius 
(the Water-pourer), and the Fishes, whose natural home is 

T 2 



2i2 THE STARS FOR NOVEMBER 

in the water. Below Aquarius you see another fish. Below 
Pisces there is the sea-monster Cetus, and close by Cetus, 
as you will see in the second southern chart for this month, 
is the watery sign Eridanus, named later as a river, but un- 
doubtedly in the older system of the constellations repre- 
sented as a great stream of water simply, something like the 
streams which were represented as flowing from the water- 
can of Aquarius. 

I have already mentioned the old superstition of the 
astrologers that when the sun and moon and the other five 
planets (for the sun and moon were planets in the old 
system ot astronomy) were conjoined in the watery signs, or 
specially in Capricornus, the world would be destroyed by 
a flood. It is rather curious that the history of the Flood 
was, in a sense, portrayed among the constellations, which 
(when the figures were first formed) lay south of the equator, 
insomuch that some have gone so far as to suggest that the 
narrative of the Flood is an account in words of what was 
pictired in the older temples of the stars (on the walls 
below the dome-roof which sprang from the circle repre- 
senting the equator). 

The coincidences are curious enough to be worth notic- 
ing, though to many the natural thought will be that the 
zodiac temples represented on their walls a more ancient 
history of a flood, not that the history was a later explana- 
tion of zodiac temples made long before. 

We have the Water-pourer casting streams of water 
downward from the equator, as explained last month, the 
waters rising until the uppermost of the fishes rose nearly 
to the equator (so it would have been pictured in the 
remote ages referred to); while the great sea-monster and 
the still heavier streams of Eridanus on one side, with the 
Sea-goat on the other, indicate the prevalence of the waters 
which had been poured by Aquarius over all things. Pass- 
ing onward (see successively the southern maps for January, 
February, March, &c), we come first to the great ship Argo, 
which was associated in the earliest ages with the Ark ; 



THE STARS FOR NOVEMBER. 213 

next is the Centaur, which again we find from early autho- 
rities was formerly depicted as a man (the hinder quarters ot 
the horse forming the fore part, at present missing, of the 
great ship). This man was represented bearing a sacrifice 
toward the altar, Ara, from which the smoke of burning 
incense rose into the heavens. We know that Noah, when 
he went forth from the ark, built an altar, and took of 
every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered 
burnt-offerings on the altar ; and that the smoke of burning 
incense rose from the altar of Noah may be inferred from 
the words which immediately follow, in the authorized 
version of the Bible narrative : " The Lord smelled a sweet 
savour." 

Next after the altar, or rather above it, and in fact in the 
smoke from the altar, is the bow of Sagittarius, — and 
corresponding with this we read that God, after the savour 
of the altar had reached Him, said : "I do set my bow in 
the cloud, and it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud 
over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud." 
Close by the ship Argo, again, is the raven, perched on 
Hydra (the great Sea-serpent), represented in the old 
sculptures immersed in the waves of ocean on which the 
ark was floating. Orion was from time immemorial 
associated with Nimrod (the mighty hunter before the Lord) 
and acordingly has his dogs bes ; de him ; while the first 
vineyard and vintage may be supposed to be indicated by 
the cup, Crater. (It seems also that Virgo — close by 
Crater — was represented of old as bearing grapes, and to 
this day the star e of the Virgin is called Vindemiatrix, or 
"the Lady Gathering Grapes.") 

The constellation Pegasus, or " the Winged Horse," is a 
singular one for several reasons. There is not the slightest 
resemblance to a winged horse among the stars of the 
group; and as usually represented the winged half horse has 
his head downward, the neck joining the body at a and 
extending to (, etc. The constellation is easily recognized 
by the three bright stars /3, a, and y. which with a of 



214 THE STARS FOR NOVEMBER. 

Andromeda form what is commonly called the square of 
Pegasus ; for a Andromeda was also, of old, a star of 
Pegasus — to wit, 8 of this constellation. You will observe 
that the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet has no repre- 
sentative star, at present, in the constellation. 

The sun in his annual course along the ecliptic passes 
the point <y, or crosses the equator moving northward, on 
or about March 21st. 

In the east (p. 224) the stars of Orion are rising. Above 
the head and shoulders of the Giant are the horns of the 
Bull ; and above these again the constellation Perseus. The 
Milky Way runs nearly vertically along the left of these 
constellations, and athwart the constellation Cassiopeia, 
which is now nearly overhead. 




Fig. 34-— Cygnus, Lyra and Vulpecula. 

In the west (\) 225) we see the constellations of the Eagle 
and the Swan ; all the original bird constellations are now 
in the west. The Lyre was one of these, being called the 
Rising Bird, while Cygnus (the Swan) was called the Falling 
Bird (Fig. 34). 

The divided portion of the Milky Way is now well seen 



THE STARS FOR NOVEMBER. 215 

in the west ; specially noteworthy is the brightness of the 
branch on the right, where it crosses Cygnus, and the great 
diminution of the biightness as it approaches the constella- 
tion Ophiuchus, near the horizon, — in marked contrast with 
the comparative faintness of the branch on the left in 
Cygnus, and its great increase of brightness where it crosses 
the constellation of the Eagle. 



STAR MAPS FOR NOVEMBER. 



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THE WESTERN MAP FOR NOVEMBER* 



THE STARS FOR DECEMBER. 



The northern map (p. 234) for December contains no new star- 
groups. It is only necessary to remark that this map makes 
the circuit of the northern heavens complete, the northern 
skies for the month following being those already shown in 
the first maps of our series. 

Turning to the southern map (p. 235), the last of the 
southern series, we see that due south and high up toward 
the point overhead, lies the group of three stars, a, /3, y, for- 
ming the head of Aries (the Ram). The brightest of the 
three is called Hamal or " the Sheep." It is not easy to 
understand why this group was likened to a ram. One can 
just imagine the outline of a sheep's face looking toward the 
right (or west) as formed by the three stars a, p, and y ; but 
in the maps the face of the ram is turned the other way, 
looking toward the Bull, which lies on the left. This has 
been the idea for many centuries ; for old Manilius wrote : 

First Aries, glorious in his golden wool, 
Looks back, and wonders at the mighty Bull. 

Yet there is a tradition that in remoter times the Ram 
looked towards the west. Aries is one of the constellations 
of the zodiac, a set of twelve arranged as a zone or band 
round the heavens, along the middle of which runs the 
ecliptic, which is in fact the path of the sun. Former y 
Aries was the first of the zodiacal constellations, but the 



7'i.i 



THE STARS FOR DECEMBER. 



same change which has shifted the pole from the Dragon to 
the Little Bear has shifted the Ram from his former position. 

The sun in his course along the ecliptic crosses the point 
marked h , or enters the sign Taurus, on or about April 
20th. 

The stars n, 39, and 41, at one time formed a separate 
constellation called Musca (the Fly) — rather a large fly if 
Aries represents an ordinary ram. 

Below the Ram there is the great straggling constellation 
called Cetus, or «■ the Whale." In reality it was intended, I 
suppose, to represent some imaginary sea monster (see fig. n, 
p. 51) ) for the whale could hardly have been known to the 
astronomers who formed the older constellations. The group 
suggest? rather an animal like the sea-serpent, rearing its 
head above water, than the great lumbering mass of a whale ; 
and if the idea (see p. 199) that some recollection of the 
Enaliosaurian or long-necked (and long-named) reptiles was 
intended, is incorrect, then I imagine that the monster was 
no other than the crocodile. Sightly to modify the words of 
Shakespeare, we may say of this star group, 

It's almost in shape of a crocodile, 
By the mass and 'tis a crocodile, indeed. 
hfethinks it's like a weasel. 
It is backed like a weasel. 
Or like a whale? 
Very like a whale. 

For an account of " the Wonderful Star," see p. 52. 

Above the Ram you will see the Triangles, one triangle 
formed of faint stars, the other of fairly conspicuous ones. 
The constellation Eridanus, or " the River Po," is seen to 
the left of the south, passing on a winding course, such as a 
river should follow, to the southern horizon. At places in 
latitude of New Orleans the bright star Achernar (of the 
first magnitude) shows where the river comes to an end. 
(Achernar signifies the latter part or end). The Bedouin 
Arabs call Eridanus u the Ostrich." The wide region almost 
bare of stars between Cecus and Eridanus is occupied by 



THE STARS FOR DEC EM BE, 



229 



the modern constellations Fornax* (the Chemist's Furnace) 
and Sculptor* (the Sculptor's Workshop). , 

In the east (p. 238) the principal constellations are Canis 
Minor (the Lesser Dog), low down ; Gemini (the Twins), next 
above ; then again Auriga (the 
Charioteer), Fig. 35 ; and approach- 
ing the point overhead, the stars 
of Perseus (the Rescuer). Orion 
has passed over to the E.S. E, and 
above his head lie the principal 
stars of the Bull. The eastern 
skies show a singularly fine array 
of brilliant stars. Sirius and Pro 
cyon (the Greater and Lesser Do^- 
stars), Betelgeux and Rigel of 
Orion, Aldebaran, and Capella, 
are all first-magnitude stars ; while among second-magnitude 
stars towards the east may be mentioned the three stars 
of Orion's belt — Bellatrix (Gamma of Orion), Castor and 
Pollux (Alpha and Beta, of Gemini) 

The chief constellation in the western skies (p. 239) is 
Pegasus (the Winged Horse) ; above which is Andromeda 
(the Chained Lady) ; while somewhat below Pegasus we see 
on the left the stars of Aquarius, and on the right those of 
Cygnus. Low down in the west are the small constellations 
Equuleus and Delphinus. 




* These Latin names are abbreviations lor Fornax Chemica and 
Officina Sculptoria. 



STAR MAPS FOR DECEMBER. 



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